AIKO
I couldn't sleep. Not with Noriko's face haunting me every time I closed my eyes.
The balcony of my new quarters offered a view that should have been distracting enough—a vast expanse of violet sky where dragons soared in lazy spirals, their scales catching the light of twin suns. Beneath them, the crystal waters of Lake Vorsai spread out like liquid sapphire, more dragons diving and swimming through its depths with the same fluid grace they showed in flight.
It was beautiful. Breathtaking. The home my mother had been denied for two thousand years.
And all I could think about was Noriko's eyes when the Abyss took her. Empty. Hollow. Gone.
"We'll get her back," I whispered to myself, fingers clutching the crescent moon pendant at my throat. "Somehow."
The Dragon Realm had welcome
