Whether it was the gods guiding me or my own intuition, I believed that I owed her for what she’d given me that night. It wasn’t simply a dance, but an unexpected courage to walk my new path. If she could look upon a dragon with such fearlessness, knowing I had the power to kill her and her entire clan, then I could summon the same to face my own future beneath my uncle’s power. That was why I’d paid her with such a precious coin that had been so dear, never knowing it would one day guide her right back to me.
