In a grand chamber with high vaulted ceilings, they found a shrine of black rock adorned with glowing blue symbols. Here rested the seal of Astikar, bound to a shrine covered in dragon writing that suggested it was a focus of Estaisha. They had seen that name before, and Sarah was sure it was an old goddess of dragons who once united them as a single kind. She reminded them that the Balisha and Solesta were relative newcomers, seeming to have replaced the once prime goddess.

Tavis was able to determine that the shrine was indeed heavily trapped, but with weaves so complex and ancient that he had no idea how to even begin countering them. Some of the symbols used in the weaves were divine in nature, suggesting a level of power and knowledge beyond their understanding.

It was the last act of aggression of the old Father Abbot, his final attempt to hamper Gersius. It was a show of just how committed the man was to his cause, that he laid a final trap that would only be discovered if he was dead. It took them an hour of careful consideration and risky tests to come to a final solution.

Ultimately, it was removed with a simple blessing, using Balisha's dragon's claw to swipe it from the shrine. Sarah took possession of the artifact, reading the words written along the ring's edge that espoused the tenets and beliefs of a divine god. Among the temple's other treasures were old corroded plates of what once had been dragon armor. Sarah had to explain that it was rarely used but that some dragons did favor it, particularly along the bones of the wings that were extremely vulnerable.

This particular armor was designed to cover far more than the arms of the wings and even included a spiked ring to wear on the tail to turn it into a formidable weapon. Lilly was enthralled by the armor made for a dragon three times her size. Sarah tried to convince her that armor wasn't as useful for a dragon as it was for a man, but Lilly liked the idea of it anyway.

They lingered long enough to read some of the murals depicting dragons from various orders standing in ranks before the divines. One scene was meant to depict Balisha, but it was heavily defaced, and all that remained was part of an inscription that once depicted the fang blade.

If this were all they had discovered, Gersius would have been grateful. Seeing the death of the man who caused him so much pain had brought him little comfort. He had long since come to terms with the cruelty of the man who once headed the order of justice and mercy. However, what they found in the lower tunnels was abhorrent.

Dozens of women were confined to cell-like rooms where they sat and waited to be called for. After a brief interrogation, they turned out to be fallen women of Ulustrah whose usefulness was gone now that they could no longer call on the goddess. They were relegated to the role of servants and concubines, kept at the behest of the dead father and his twisted ravens. They were broken women who had come to see the true face of cruelty and realize they had been wrong.

Gersius ordered them freed and brought them back where they would be cared for as refugees. He reasoned they had suffered enough and were now well aware they had chosen poorly. Thayle was grateful for his understanding and mercy and quickly set about managing the women to get them to camp. It took him several hours to catch the army, with the weak, often beaten women slowing his pace.

When they arrived, the women were given warm baths, fine clothing, and a good meal without any judgment being cast. Thayle saw to it they were cared for while the army marched, and if they wished to volunteer, she would put them to work in the kitchens or other support duties.

Alayse was less sympathetic but understood that these women had suffered. She looked the other way as they were treated well and given what comforts that could be managed. She was more focused on breaking out into the wide open plains and beginning the true war against the Doan. For three tense days, they wound their way through a mountain pass expecting the way forward to be blocked by a hostile army. But on the dawn of the fourth day, Gersius stood on mighty Sarah's back, looking over the vast open plains. Behind him sat Lilly, Thayle, Rose, and Alayse, surveying the landscape in awe.

“They didn’t even try to stop us,” Sarah said as the morning sky still glowed red. “We have broken out behind them.”

“And we will make them pay for it,” Alayse said from her place on the saddle. “They have made a terrible miscalculation, and I will see them regret it.”

“You act as if you have won. Surely you know the real danger has now begun?” Rose asked as she stood to walk up to Gersius. “The entire Doan empire is marshaled against you.”

“And they have no idea their plan has failed,” Gersius replied.

“Surely they have to suspect something,” Rose insisted. “Their dragons never returned, and the army has made no effort to contact them. Shorri said they planned to use the dragons to fly messages over your lines. They have to know by now.”

“I am sure they suspect something has gone wrong,” Gersius agreed. “But let us not forget what else Shorri said. If they knew we were coming, they would block the pass in the mountains and hold us in the narrow space.”

“Which hasn't happened,” Sarah stated. “They may suspect their army failed, but I doubt they can understand how badly it did. I am willing to wager they think that even if we did survive, our army is so badly mauled it cannot take the field.”

“It nearly was that badly mauled,” Alayse suggested.

“It survived,” Gersius said. “And the Doan will likely have a plan to break the border keeps in the event their army failed.”

“Shorri said she wasn’t allowed to know that part of the plan,” Lilly said. “I know she thinks they didn't want her to reveal anything if she was captured, but maybe they don’t have one. Maybe they plan to keep us trapped inside the empire until their Gorromogoth completes his plan.”

“A strong possibility,” Gersius agreed. “But that only makes our being here even more of a blow to their plans. They are assuming we could never get this far.”

“We will dissuade them of that false assumption,” Sarah replied.

“You don’t think they have a plan to deal with us going on the offensive and breaking out?” Lilly asked.

“I doubt it,” Sarah said. “They had a plan to conquer the empire, but it was all to ensure the event on the eclipse wasn’t interrupted. I would be surprised if they planned for us to get this far, considering how hard they worked to keep us fighting on all fronts.”

“If they had been tactically sound, the pass would have been blocked if they knew we were coming or not,” Alayse said. “I would have stationed a garrison there to ensure my rear was defended. They could have held us with a much smaller army until well after the eclipse. By blocking that bridge, we successfully cut off their scouts from delivering the warning.”

“So it would appear,” Gersius agreed as he considered Alayse. “Will you follow your existing plan?”

“Absolutely,” Alayse replied as she folded her arms. “I have been waiting my whole life for this moment.”

“I can concur with that,” Thayle said as she smiled at the woman that had once been her lover. “She was born and crafted for this moment.” She noticed Alayse's approving smile and returned it as they turned back to look over the open land.

“It’s as if the divines prepared all of us for this exact moment,” Sarah suggested. “It is difficult to think of all the ways in which our paths were carefully crafted to bring us to this moment. Now they wait for us to take the final steps and do what they have worked all this time to do.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting,” Alayse replied.

“Indeed,” Gersius agreed.

Orders were given, and the army marched in well-practiced formations. Scouts ran ahead, searching for the enemy as Alayse moved south and then east, swinging wide to trap the entire northern region against the border keeps. The cavalry marched with the army waiting to be deployed for fast action when the time called for it, and the open land was perfect for maneuvering.

Four hours later, scouts began returning to report the tents of a massive camp ahead. Alayse smiled to know they were behind the Doan, where their supplies and logistics were vulnerable. Alayse wasted no time deploying her armies, and Gersius held back as she took command and marched on the camp. By the time the Doan knew they were coming, her cavalry was tearing through the encampment and slaughtering everything in their path. It was a sight to behold as the armies swept over in ranks of thousands, maintaining careful formations as the scattered Doan resistance did little to impede them.

Alayse didn't hesitate to press her advantage; now that the camp and its supplies were captured, she would sweep ahead to find the army it supported. An hour later, the Doan army had been engaged with the dragons to support the effort. Banners of the various divines flew high as the armies marched ahead, with the border kept standing on the cliffs in the distance.

The enemy was completely surprised when the cavalry hit their rear formations. What ensued was a battle of seasoned soldiers fighting to end a desperate struggle. In the distance, they could hear a low roar as voices and alarms rose from walls and fortifications on the cliffs that marked the empire's border. The men on those walls had seen the battle and realized the dragon knights had come.

Alayse proved her skill as a commander, leading the army directly and maintaining a strong awareness of the battle throughout. She put her various army groups to skillful use, encircling tens of thousands of the Doan. She used her might to drive them toward the cliffs where they would be trapped and unable to maneuver. It was here his army got their first true taste of the savagery of bandersooks as the wild beasts were set on them in vast numbers. Alayse had been prepared for this and deployed ranks of pike men to thin the herds while keeping her battle priests and priestesses back. Arrows, weaves, and all manner of blessings were hurled between the two armies as they clashed in a titanic battle. The Doan here did better, but their army was too slow to turn around and meet the sudden appearance of their enemy. By the time they did, they were in a disadvantaged situation that Alayse was eager to take advantage of. Once the fighting was fully engaged, soldiers and cavalry from the keeps rushed out to aid them. They deployed against the Doan, squeezing them on two sides as a frantic battle ensued.

It lasted three terrible hours, during which his dragons lashed out viciously, adding to the terrible death toll. What was most disturbing was the fact that the Doan would not yield. Shorri insisted that no Doan general would ever give the command to run and would likely fight to the last. They proved this as the pocket of Doan soldiers reduced to a few thousand, then a few hundred, then a few dozen. In the end, one brave man fought with a single usable arm, fending off the thousands around him until a hammer of Astikar took him down.

It was a massacre, but not without costs. Alayse was not shy about taking casualties when an objective was within reach. As much as Gersius hated it, he now needed that level of aggression. The primary goal was capturing and securing Solesta’s cursed heart so the enemy could not use it during the eclipse. That meant they needed to hit hard and move fast, crossing a vast area of land dominated by their enemy.

Now that a breach had been opened to the empire, Alayse sent letters to Gams, urging him to exploit it. She wanted to push hard to the south, sweeping the Doan in her path away. She wouldn't be able to take time to rest her army or allow the wounded to recover. Instead, she would strip fresh soldiers from the border and keeps, pressing them into her ever-growing offensive. The first day of true fighting was over, and the tide had turned. Now the empire was the aggressor, and the women of Ulustrah were eager to pay their enemy back for his cruelty.

That night they made camp under a cloudy sky that drizzled with rain as Lilly sat in the tent doorway with her arm around Thayle. It was a strange moment of peace in a time of absolute chaos and bloodshed. At any moment, the Doan could counterattack, or a dragon might sweep down from the skies. Yet here were his wives, holding one another as they listened to the gentle patter of rain.

Gersius joined them to discover that Thayle had her egg in her lap, stroking it with the gentle touch of a mother. Thayle had changed much in the course of their long march to this moment. She was once a woman in hiding, trying her best to avoid being a soldier. All she wanted was to serve the gentle nature of her goddess, bringing love and fruitfulness to a small village. Now she was the champion of Ulustrah and had led several of the major offensives. She had killed a hundred men or more in their march and suffered some terrible wounds in the process. Yet in all that turmoil, Thayle had come to love him so much that she sought to bare him a child. She had delivered on that desire, and the fruit of it now sat in her lap.

“What are you two doing?” he asked as he sat behind them to enjoy the moment of calm.

“Your wives are talking,” Thayle replied, looking at the rain. “Lilly thinks this is the divines crying over what is happening.”

“Because what is happening is terrible,” Lilly said. “It didn’t need to be like this. Why couldn’t they understand what I was trying to tell them?

“I know you wanted to avoid the death that would come with this stage of the war. But you must remember we are doing what the divines asked us to do,” Gersius replied and rubbed Lilly’s shoulder. “I felt your emotions during the battle. You have strong regrets about what is going to happen.”

“Of course I do,” Lilly replied, putting a hand over his. “I know that when I went to the Doan, they pretended to care about what I had to say to trap me. Everything I set out to do was a failure, but I met one Doan man who saw past the lies of the dragons and wanted to learn. He is proof that they can be turned from this path if only we had more time to show them. He was a clan leader and a man with great influence. What might their culture be like in a hundred years if he became their ruler? What will it lose if he dies in our march against the Gorromogoth?

Gersius was surprised by the complex question as Lilly struggled with the concepts of what could be if only things were different. All he could do was offer her the hope that the divines had a plan for him too. If she really felt that strongly about it, she should pray to Balisha and ask her to weave a plan for him into the future.

“I will try that, thank you,” Lilly replied and took her hand away to catch some rain. “I always liked the rain.”

“So do I,” Thayle said. “It makes plants grow.”

“It’s always about plants,” Lilly laughed as the drops pooled in her palm. “You should have been a farmer.”

“I assumed I would be a farmer's wife,” Thayle mused. “What a blessing a woman of Ulustrah is to a man who likes to grow, but maybe I still will be.” She looked at Gersius to suggest there was still time for them to have the little farm he had once told them about.

“Who knows what our future holds,” Gersius agreed as he put his arms around them. He could see the light of their auras and knew they were doing their best to be calm in a terrible storm of doubt. Likely there were a dozen battles ahead of them, and the Doan would likely begin to mount a proper defense. The death counts would soar as they fought savagely to repel the empire and prevent them from reaching their goal.

“So many are going to die,” Lilly agreed as she read his thoughts. “Including Hurrock.”

“Let us not dwell on that,” Gersius suggested as he cleared his thoughts. “Tell me instead why we have our child.”

“I was trying to distract Lilly by coming up with baby names,” Thayle said.

“You are naming the child already?” Gersius asked.

“It seems silly to think of a name for a broodling before it is hundreds of years old, let alone still in an egg. Let it pick its own name when it is ready,” Lilly suggested.

“That’s not how humans do it,” Gersius replied. “We like to plan our names in advance.”

“Why?” Lilly asked with a curious expression. “Isn't it better to let the child choose their own name?”

“Your mother gave you and your siblings pet names,” Thayle replied as she giggled. “Or did you forget that she called you stinky tail?”

“That was something special between my mother and I,” Lilly protested. “You shouldn’t make fun of it.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I wasn't trying to upset you,” Thayle urged. “It's important to humans to have names for our children. It helps us bond with them and is part of how our culture works.”

“Making up names must be hard,” Lilly mused as she turned back to the rain. “You have so many humans, and you make up names for all of them. But it doesn't matter because they can choose a name for themselves later. I know our daughter won’t keep the name we give her.”

“Why do you say that?” Gersius asked as Lilly sighed and closed her eyes. He gently brushed her hand to see she was reliving his dream of her daughter and the start that was her mother. He knew this dream caused Lilly a great deal of conflict as she was never in it.

“I saw it in a vision,” Lilly replied. “When she is older, she will change her name to one of her own choosing. She will call herself Lillian, and she will be restless. She will be driven to go where she should not, and she will pluck the flower from my hands.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Thayle asked as she grew upset by Lilly’s tone.

“I don't know,” Lilly replied, her aura filled with sadness. “I saw it during a prayer to Balisha. Something to do with Lillian's purpose.”

Gersius could feel Lilly's tension over that admission and didn't dare pry deeper into her feelings. She was prone to these dour moods, particularly after a battle where she longed for the life to come after the wars were over. She also still believed that there was a chance she would not be there to raise her daughter. Instead of opening that wound, he turned to Thayle and asked her what names she had considered.

“If it's a girl, I want to name her Kathleen, and if it's a boy, I want to name him Thanus,” Thayle replied.

“Why Thanus?” Lilly asked as she put her hand over the egg.

“It was my Grandfather's name,” Thayle explained. “I only knew him when I was young, but I still remember him. He once told me to be sure I grew up good and strong because I had a purpose.”

“You mean he knew you would do all this?” Lilly said in surprise.

“No, silly,” Thayle said as she met Lilly’s gaze. “Parents say things like that to encourage their children to strive for goals.”

“Oh, is this why humans always rush to build things?” Lilly asked.

“Maybe,” Thayle said with a shrug. “I suppose it’s part of our nature to build, and parents like to encourage their children to dream big.”

“And yet here we are, destroying everything because of dragons,” Lilly sighed. “We are creatures of little purpose, and yet we cause so much harm.”

“Please do not think of your kind like that,” Gersius insisted as he moved beside her, putting an arm around her waist. “Your kind is blessed with an existence that has very little need. Humans build because we will perish without food, shelter, and safety. But dragons are so powerful that they need very little to exist on. All you need is a cave high in the mountains, and you are safe from almost all predators. You need a pile of precious metal to sleep on for food. You honestly have no need for more than that.”

“But that life is so pointless,” Lilly insisted. “Now that I know about the wonders of your kind, I could never go back to living alone in a cave. I need the beautiful things you create just as much as I need food and shelter. I need your love and the strength of your embrace to face the challenges. As a dragon, I was arrogant and vain, but now I understand I was never as strong as I thought. Now I realize that I am not a whole being when I am alone. It's you, Thayle, and Sarah who make me whole. Even Rose, Ayawa, Tavis, and Gedris are part of my heart now. I love them all as part of our family, and that is what I crave most.”

“You desire a family,” Gersius agreed with a nod.

“Lilly, you realize that a lot of that desire is probably coming from Gersius?” Thayle asked. “He dreams about family night and day.”

“I know I learned it from him,” Lilly admitted. “But I have seen how beautiful a family can be, and I want that for my life.”

“You will have it; I promise,” Gersius assured her, then turned her about. “Lilly, I know you believe you will not be there to raise your daughter, but I think you are wrong. You survived your time with the Doan and returned with Rose. The danger is passed, and you need to look forward to naming your daughter as Thayle is her child.”

“You honestly believe the danger is over?” Lilly asked with trembling eyes.

“You are with your family now,” Gersius said. “Nothing can touch you unless it gets through all of us first.”

“And that will never happen,” Thayle agreed as she put a hand on Lilly's thigh. “So, what are you going to name your daughter?”

“Her name is Lorren,” Lilly replied. “But I told you, she won't keep it. She will change it to Lillian when she gets old enough to choose her own name.”

“Then let her do so,” Gersius replied, pulling Lilly to his side. “I like that her name sounds like yours.”

“I do, too,” Lilly agreed as she shut her eyes to enjoy his embrace. “If I have another daughter, I want to name her after Sarah. I will call her Saratha in honor of her.”

“That's very beautiful,” Thayle said with a smile. “See, that's how you should be thinking. Planning for the future, we are fighting to build.”

“I have been thinking about the prophecy,” Lilly said as they settled in to watch the rain.

“What about it?” Gersius asked.

“It ends strangely,” Lilly replied. “It ends like how it should have begun.”

“What do you mean?” Thayle asked, now curious as to where Lilly was going.

“It ends with a passage that says that one day a being will come who will return the light of love to the world,” Lilly said.

“Lilly,” Thayle laughed. “That passage is obviously talking about you.’

“I don't think it is,” Lilly insisted. “It's the last passage on the last page. It's how it all ends that one day love will return. Does that mean we fail in the end?”

“No,” Gersius replied. “I think it means that the work we are doing now begins to restore Balisha, and one day she will become strong enough to finish what she started.”

“And the dragons finally learn how to love,” Thayle agreed.

“I hope so,” Lilly sighed. “I pray that no more dragons die in this war. I want them all to know what it’s like to be loved so they can find the same happiness I have.”

“You have a beautiful dream,” Gersius agreed. “And you have taught that love to both Shadros and Rose.”

“I want them all to know it,” Lilly replied as she rocked with him. “I want every dragon in every corner of the world to hear the words, I love you.”

“I am sure that you will get your wish one day,” Gersius replied. “One day, dragons will look to the heavens and praise the name of Lilly, the dragon of love and family.”

Lilly smiled as she dreamed about a world where dragons understood love and sought it out, building families of their own. It was a perfect vision that filled her heart with hope, but Solesta's curse soured it all. So long as her heart remained in the world, the dragons would never know love, and with their pointless lives and conflict with humans, they would eventually die out. How many would be left in a thousand years? Would it even be enough to sustain them? Was it too late for Balisha's plan to work?

Only time would tell as they raced to secure the location where it fell. Maybe Gersius was right, and it could be destroyed, or maybe a better solution would be found along the way. All she knew was this eclipse was their best chance to change the fate of the dragons, but could they defeat the Gorromogoth, or was this going to be their last stand?