We pressed onward, deeper into the bowels of the fortress, dispatching what enemies we crossed; mostly azure stewards and initiates and mage hunters. Either they were surprisingly inept, or we were ludicrously powerful, for we silenced them all pretty quickly, with little fuss. It was odd, how using my magic to defend us against enemies soon became easier to handle the more I conjured and channelled.

"If these are meant to represent Malygos' finest, I'd say he's lost his touch as a leader," Aden voiced as we stood over the last four bodies.

I looked at Felenn. Something indecipherable swam within her eyes. I could have sworn even the colour of them was somehow different. In what way, I wasn't sure, but I found myself wondering what was going through that pretty head.

She glanced up and saw me watching her. Quickly she started fussing with her cuffs. And I definitely noticed something then. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to her wrist. She tried to cover it up, but I strolled over and pushed her sleeve up. The injury was very subtle but nonetheless noticeable. "How long have you had this?" I asked.

She was shaking her head and pulled her wrist free, still trying to conceal what I could only think of as scales. I was fearful for her, genuinely concerned. "Felenn! We should treat this. Was it a bite? Did one of those things touch you in any way?" I was reaching for her bag of medicines, but she shifted it around her waist, out of my reach.

"It is nothing, Klara. Honestly, nothing to worry about."

"But..."

"Come on!" Araellor shouted at us. "We want this over and done with today."

I turned back to my friend. She was smiling and as usual, she placed a hand on my arm, her concern for me, not herself. "I'm fine, honestly. Now let's catch up with the others."

She tugged me forward and we caught up with the three of them.

Ahead of us, a great expanse opened. We had to cross a very narrow bridge to reach the next platform, but the entire place buzzed and hummed and crackled. I looked up to see streaks of blue, purple and white lightning zapping across the ceiling. A ceiling which appeared to have no solidity, no structure, just continual bursts of blinding power.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention, as did those under my garments on my arms and legs. My entire body seemed to be responding to the sheer immensity of power pulsing in this part of the Nexus.

"It is called the Rift," Felenn advised us. "A giant power station for want of a better description," she explained.

"How on earth didn't we feel this further back from where we came?" Aden asked, astounded by what he was witnessing.

"It is contained, for all there are doorways leading to and from it."

"I think Berinand will want you to help him with his studies, Felenn," Garret said, equally astonished by the array of magical streaks and bolts that filled the entire cavern in which we stood.

I glanced down and almost screamed. Almost. Beneath the bridge, the dangerously narrow band of metal on which we were walking, was an abyss. It mirrored the power above us, with streaks of colourful magic darting all around the underside of the bridge, down, down into... nothing!

"In the name of *Trollbane!" I exclaimed. "What in the world ...?" I trembled as my stomach did a triple somersault. I wasn't ordinarily afraid of heights, but when there was no end, no bottom, just an unfathomable, stomach-churning pit, extending into nowhere, I think my reaction was justified.

With eyes up and looking straight ahead, we continued onward. Until we saw movement up ahead. We followed Araellor's lead and hunkered down, the act of which was extremely nerve-wracking given our more than precarious location.

We had no option but to attack in a straight line, there was no solid ground to enable us to try and flank the enemy. And one wrong step...

Araellor held up four fingers. At least we knew how many were up ahead, no surprises then with unaccounted numbers. The hunter turned to check we were all ready.

His eyes locked with mine, and time seemed to stand still. I felt a tug, a pull; like the opposite ends of magnets being drawn, naturally, involuntarily together. At first, I thought it had something to do with the power of the Rift, all the fizzing, buzzing, flashing and humming as each school of magic whirled and danced around us. The magnificent light show it produced, like a grandiose theatrical production aimed to wow the masses. But it wasn't that. It was an entirely different kind of magic. One I had never expected to experience in a million years – certainly not where an elf was concerned.

I just inclined my head, subtle, without any show of aversion. Or rejection. My heart was hammering, its timpani thundering in my ears. I had time to see him smile before he faced forward once more. Next, he gave us the signal to advance.

We moved as one, all five of us. And the second each of us placed a foot on the circular platform where the enemy came at us full throttle, we opened fire. A fully armoured wyrmkin led the attack, its scaled bulk charging at us as it swung and twirled a bladed polearm. It took a hit and went down, skidding on its knees, but still heading for us. If we didn't finish it quickly it would knock us from the platform like skittles, sending us into the abyss. A cross bolt through the eye stopped it dead in its tracks. One down. Three to go.

All attacked at once and a chaotic plethora of magic bolts spewed into them along with Araellor's trusty cross bolts. Garret and Aden both dropped to their knees – not wounded but trying for an advantage. It worked and with another barrage of frost and fire, they laid the two scale-binders to rest. The final enemy, wielding two swords was catapulted from the platform by an arcane blast from Felenn.

We all took a moment to catch our breath and then checked each of us was uninjured. Thankfully, we were all in one piece, but there was no denying the fight had worn us down. I knew had we been battling on solid ground, with no threat of vanishing into the void, we would not have felt so spent by the encounter. The struggle had now become psychosomatic as well as physical.

Another platform was up ahead, and again it was reached by a narrow bridge. As I scanned the way forward, my heart sank. The entire place was a network of bridges and platforms and on each platform waited several enemies. Judging by the agonised silence within the group, we had all thought the same thing.

"The large platform to the northwest," Felenn whispered to all of us.

"What of it?" Araellor asked.

"You will find what you are looking for there."

"How...how .... Can you see it? From here?" Aden gasped.

Felenn shook her head, one of her neat little braids sliding down from her crown, becoming undone. "I will explain later when the time arrives."

"What?" I asked. I couldn't grasp what I was hearing. And, if I wasn't mistaken, my new friend was definitely being decidedly secretive, very abstruse in her behaviour. Her eyes met mine. There was an apology within her gaze, a pleading. "We must move on," she urged without answering my unspoken question - What are you hiding from me, Felenn?

Araellor primed his crossbow and produced another smaller version of it from the knapsack on his back. I noted it had several smaller bolts already secured in place, each just as lethal as their larger cousin's arsenal. It was then it really hit home what we were up against. It was then I knew I had to up my game.

"Holy moly!" Aden gushed, the realisation of the enormity of our situation having obviously dawned on him too.

I saw Garret pat his comrade's shoulder. A gesture of encouragement? Or of resigned defeat? I didn't dare mull the implications of his simple but poignant show of brothers in arms.

And I met Araellor's eyes again. They were a dark, profoundly rich and warm brown, with an almost silver aura around them. An indescribable concoction of hues really, but a blend which I suddenly couldn't get enough of. He looked away, back at the pending battle ahead, and the 'spell' of just a moment ago was interrupted. Not broken, exactly, but put aside, as in priority. A place to revisit; should we survive the Rift.

The four of us awaited the signal to advance. And with bated breath, we followed the hunter's lead.

Practically crouched as we moved, slow and steady, we approached the next platform with its waiting threat. As with the first one, we started showering our arsenal as we each stepped onto the relative safety of the broad disc-shaped platform. We managed to defeat the servants of Malygos again without physical injury, but our stamina was starting to wear thin. Even Araellor looked close to being spent.

The one good thing was that the large platform Felenn had pointed out was considerably closer. The distance had been deceiving from our former viewpoint. The bridges all crossed an impressive distance between platforms. It was surprising to realise we had come so far into the Rift. But we were by no means out of danger. The threats increased tenfold now. Plus, our display of magical prowess must have alerted some of the creatures up ahead.

True enough, a formation of bodies advanced in our direction. This time not only were there wyrmkin, but also huge wraiths, their translucent forms made no less menacing for the lack of flesh and bone. Power pulsed throughout their tapering forms and a menace so infinite, so final, projected from their beady eyes, snaring each of us to the spot.

"Stand back!" I heard Felenn say as she strode in front of all four of us.

I reached out, trying to grab her robe, but I missed. Or rather, it was no longer a robe that she wore. I gasped as I watched a distortion of light surround her, a medley of colours, predominately azure, teal and periwinkle blue all spin around her like a mini torrent, a vortex.

I squealed, terrified the encroaching attackers were enveloping her in some immobility spell or worse.

But it was nothing of the sort. Instead, Felenn's sylph-like figure, golden hair and even her clothing shimmered and shifted as she doubled, trebled, and became many times larger than the young woman I knew, and cared about. The pretty elf I loved and whose friendship I'd come to cherish. She evolved before our very eyes into... a dragon. One of the Blue Dragonflight.

That was the secret I felt she'd been hiding. The imperceivable side of her personality. I had suspected she'd held something back from me, but never did I imagine...this! I suddenly remembered the 'wound' on her arm and now I understood. It was no wound at all; it was a smattering of scales, only it hadn't registered at the time...well, why would it? I gawped, utterly speechless. And as I looked at the others, they seemed equally in awe, if not indeed wary, uncertain of what would follow.

"Klara," I heard Felenn's voice in my head, yet it wasn't her, really, at least not quite the she-elf Felenn I knew. I looked up as the dragon turned to look at me. She was communicating telepathically. "I am sorry for not telling you everything, but I had my reasons. None of which bear any denigration of you or ... our colleagues' trustworthiness."

"Felenn..." was all I could say or think to be more accurate. I swore the dragon's ophidian lips curved in a smile, showing the rows of razor teeth tucked behind them.

"It was all necessary so I could return here, my one-time home." Her gentle laughter filled my head. "This is how I do not feel the cold as you do, my friend. I am acclimatised to the cool and sometimes freezing temperatures of Coldarra."

"Of course! That explains it," I thought, sending my silent communication by way of telepathy, a gift I didn't even know I possessed. Probably didn't, really; it was most likely something made possible by the dragon. She nodded as if confirming my hypothesis.

"I will clear the path for you to reach the cure. It is kept upon a small dais, and it is guarded by Anomalus. the great elemental whose form shimmers in the distance."

My eyes flitted beneath her wing – her wing – and I could just make out the creature she spoke of.

"What's going on?" Garret asked.

"Klara! Speak to us? Has it...has she entranced you?" Aden's penny's worth floated away into the void.

But fingers wrapping around my arm drew my attention. Araellor. His face loomed over me, with a gentleness yet a quiet urgency in his eyes. "Is she conversing with you?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Then quickly, ask her what we must do."

I turned back to Felenn – dragon Felenn. Although I knew time was of the essence, I still had to know the simplest of things. "What do I call you?"

"Felenngosa," she answered. "Although, naturally, Felenn will do."

I nodded, smiling. "Apart from making our way to the big platform and retrieving the cure, what else must we do?"

A silence stretched between us, and I sensed a finality to the quietness. "Survive," she said.

"Klara!" There was no ignoring the urgency in Araellor's voice.

"She is going to carve a path for us to get to that large platform." I pointed to where she'd told me to look. "The cure is located there. But it is guarded."

"Gathered it would be," he said, a note of resignation in his tone. "Okay, right lads," he aimed at Garret and Aden. "Felenn is now leading, but we'll still have to fight. The numbers are against us, even with a dragon on our side."

The magi nodded and prepared for combat.

Araellor turned to me. He still had hold of my arm, but he was gentle and tender. "And you," he said just loud enough for me to hear – and possibly Felenn by the looks of the sparkle in the dragon's eye. "I want a very private word with you, young lady when we get out of here."

I pursed my lips, trying not to smile. I just nodded and then we both readied ourselves for whatever was coming our way.

I looked back at Felenn. "Okay," I sent my thought through to her. "We're ready."

She took a step forward.

"Felenn!" I shouted her name – or at least I thought it loudly. Her giant scaled head turned to look at me one last time. "Be careful, my friend," I said.

"You too, dearest Klara."

And then we advanced.

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A/N: - *Trollbane* - thought I'd use an ancient name as a form of invective here. If you're wondering, it refers to Ignaeus Trollbane, who was a renowned general of the Arathorian Empire during the Troll Wars - and is an ancestor to Galen and Danath Trollbane. Ignaeus was the leader of the Alteraci human tribe, and he'd earned the name "Trollbane" due to the too-many-to-count Amani trolls he slew during the Troll Wars. 

Did you foresee Felenn's secret? It explains many things about the girl if you think about it. I'm hoping it proved something of a surprise and if it has...GREAT! There are more surprises to come.