*I am Maya Chen,* she projected back, her consciousness riding the ley lines with instinctive ease. *Last of the Celestial High Dragon line. And I'm here to save us all.*
The response was instantaneous—forty-three minds reaching toward her like drowning swimmers grasping for a lifeline. Through the connections, Maya felt their stories: centuries of hiding, of watching their kind dwindle, of believing they were alone in an increasingly hostile world.
*Impossible,* came another voice, this one from somewhere in the Siberian wilderness—ice dragon, female, pregnant and terrified. *The High Dragons are myths.*
*So were light dragons, until an hour ago,* Maya replied, letting her royal resonance pulse through the global network. The effect was immediate—every dragon on the planet suddenly fel
