“Lathwi.”
The summons erupted in Lathwi’s mind like a thunderclap. Conditioned by a lifetime of such rude awakenings, she roused to semi-consciousness without resentment or regret.
“I am here,” she replied, though the thought was framed by sleepy cobwebs.
The she-dragon projected an image of the stone at her. “Where did you get this?”
She considered a number of vague responses, then decided that she was too tired for anything other than the unadorned truth. “I stole it from you on the day you sent me away.”
The answer troubled the she-dragon, not because Lathwi had successfully thieved a stone from her hoard, but because it did not leave her satisfied. The stone may well have come from her cache, but where had it been before that? She knew, she could feel the answer lurking somewhere
