Even more to my surprise, Nyden instantly rose, dusted off his suit, and nodded to me. ‘We follow, wise leader.’
I eyed him, finding his compliance highly suspect, but I didn’t have time to think about it just then. I grabbed his arm and Avane’s and dragged them bodily through the aether back to Sulayn Phay, ignoring the way my muscles screamed and my head pounded with the effort. I couldn’t take them straight back to Gio’s rooms, of course, so I chose the closest transloc point I could find and then hauled them to Gio’s on foot.
I entered the strange parlour again to find everyone unmoved. The draykon was unchanged; Ori and Gio crouched still before it, inspecting her predicament without much hope of discovering a solution; and Tren stood near one of the energy collectors, eyeing it wit
