"Doctor?" Clara mumbled his name, her throat tight and raw. She squinted against the brightness.

"It's all right." This was Ashildr's voice now. "The Shade's gone."

Clara struggled to sit up. She was in her own bedroom in the Diner. Ashildr was perching on the side of her bed, and Drellmar resting on a chair in the corner.

Clara shook her head to clear it. She remembered a dark feathered figure. A blast of light. "What happened?"

"The Shade almost took you."

"How?" Clara croaked.

"Something's weakening the chrono-lock. The Doctor thought it might be a glitch in the temporal looping system in the extraction chamber."

"Where is he?"

"When Drellmar saved your life from the Shade," Ashildr said pointedly, "the energy surge overloaded the TARDIS' temporal inductors. He had to go to get that sorted out."

"You sent him away." The guilty look Ashildr shot at Drellmar told Clara all she needed to know. She groaned and let her head fall back to the pillow. Every muscle in her body ached, but not as fiercely as her heart. She'd throttle Ashildr, if she had the energy. Instead, she looked at Drellmar.

"The colours. Shooting from your arm like that to send the Shade away. How did you do that?"

"I magnified chromatic energy around you, and used it to push the Shade back into the In-Between." Drellmar's voice was weak and slow, as if defeating the Shade had drained her. "It only worked because the Shade was weak. If the chrono-lock breaks down completely, I won't be able to hold it back."

"Then we need to get the last fragment of Dark Star—"

"No we don't. We need to stop this, now," Ashildr snapped.

Clara sat up and twisted herself around until her feet were on the floor. "You've no right to tell me what I can or can't do. I'm a grown woman. I make my own choices."

"You're making bad ones! The Shade almost took you." Ashildr stood up, punctuating her words with a trembling finger. "The hybrid could still happen."

"Look, I'm going to get that last fragment, whether you help me or not!" Ire balled like a fist in Clara's chest. She lowered her voice. "I love him, Ashildr. I can't be without him anymore. I just can't."

Ashildr shook her head, her eyes reddening. She sat down again by Clara's side, her voice softening a little. "How do you know it isn't the Dark Star fragments making the chrono-lock fail? You've got those things around your neck, you can't take them off." She glanced at the ceiling for a moment, then shook her head. "Every time he's around things go bad."

"Ashildr, I don't think the Doctor caused this," Drellmar interjected.

The Portant's misty eyes met Ashildr's, and her words seemed to calm her. "You think we should help?" Ashildr asked, more softly now.

Drellmar nodded. "I think she will be safer with our help. I'm willing to try."

Ashildr sighed. "Alright. But for the record, I think this is a terrible idea."

#

The Doctor hovered outside the vault, running his fingers over the dials and buttons. This was probably a terrible idea. When the Portant's surge dealt with the Quantum Shade, it resonated through the TARDIS shields and overloaded the temporal inductors. He needed someone to look at those engines, but he didn't want to spend time doing it himself. He wanted to get back to Clara. She needed him, whether Ashildr approved or not. Besides, this would be a good test for Missy. He'd have to start trusting her at some point. He wanted to trust her, he really did. He wanted to believe, so badly, that she wasn't shedding crocodile tears, and they could be friends again. Perhaps they would see the stars after all.

He took a deep breath, and opened the vault.

"I got a proposition for you," he said. "I need time to do something important."

"I'm listening," Missy said, without a trace of sarcasm, no duplicity he could detect. How long that would last once she was outside the vault, he could only guess. Perhaps, against astronomical odds, this would all work out. Maybe he could be with the woman he loved and have his friend back too. He had to try.

#

"So, where is this fragment, then?" Ashildr asked.

Clara spread an ancient map out over a boulder and held it down against the wind. The sparse landscape was scattered with lone boulders and an occasional tree. "This planet is called Fyrian. According to legends, the Dark Star fragment contained the secret of eternal youth so it was hidden away inside a carved dragon's egg. Anyway, a young man called Egret the Vain, stole it. As a punishment he was transformed and doomed to protect the egg forever."

"Transformed into what?"

They all turned sharply at the Doctor's voice.

"Doctor!" Clara breathed, stepping towards him, but hesitating to embrace him. He hesitated too.

"You," Ashildr grumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," he shot back at Ashildr. He turned to Drellmar and smiled. "It is nice to see you." He picked up the edge of the faded, crinkled map. "So, go on. What's guarding the Dark Star?"

"Well, here's the thing," Clara said, shooting a doubtful glance at the Doctor. "It's supposedly a dragon. Called Egret. Well, he was a boy called Egret. Now he's a dragon."

The Doctor scoffed. "Dragons are not real."

The women all stared at him.

"Look, I've been around this universe a few times," he said. "Seen lots of things. Never once met a dragon."

"You don't know everything, Doctor," Ashildr said, folding her arms. She turned to Clara. "I don't think he should come."

Clara shook her head. "He's coming," she said, her tone brokering no argument. "Now, we have to get into the caves. It's a decent walk, and we can't get the Diner any closer because of the sub-phasic disturbance from thermite processing all over this area.

"Right. We better get started then." Ashildr swung her backpack over her shoulders, and with a scowl at the Doctor, started off down the track. Drellmar smiled apologetically at them both, and then followed Ashildr.

Clara packed the map away in her rucksack. Then, after a glance in Ashildr's direction, she pulled the Doctor into an embrace and kissed him. "How did you find us?"

"I'll always find you, Clara. I made you a promise." The kiss lingered, and then turned into another.

Clara broke it in the end. She tugged the Doctor's hand. "Come on. We better not annoy Ashildr any more."

They walked together along the track, following the route Ashildr and Drellmar had taken. "How do you think a boy could get turned into a dragon—"

"—it's not a dragon."

"—Well, whatever it is, how would the Dark Star even do that?" Clara asked, as they walked hand in hand through the scrubby landscape. The landscape may have once been an arable area, but now fields were overgrown and the barbed wire fences broken down in places.

"I don't know. But remember what happened with Amit and Aramantha? The Dark Stars must have trans-mutative powers as well as the ability to open this dimensional tear."

"So it could create a dragon, then?"

"No, no, Definitely not. They're only in stories."

"Hmmmm," Clara said, giving him a playful nudge. "I'm just going to whisper Robin Hood."

#

As they walked on, billowing clouds began to fill the blue sky. The landscape around them was bare at best, and at worst, distinctly scorched. In the distance were burned-out buildings, the skeleton of an old barn and a roofless cottage.

Ashildr stopped and pointed at a blackened tree, it's trunk split down the middle.

"Lightning," the Doctor proclaimed.

Ashildr rolled her eyes, scoffed, and marched onwards.

Drellmar raised an eyebrow at Clara. "They really don't like each other, do they?"

"It goes back a long way," Clara said. "Look, I haven't thanked you properly for what you did at the Stangers Ball. You saved my life."

"I wish I could do more," Drellmar said, her long white cloak billowing in the breeze. "That necklace. May I see it?"

Clara untucked it from beneath her shirt. "It's a bit volatile. I have to keep it dark and close to me, but not touching my skin. If I take it off, it starts to frazzle and pop like crazy. I wish I'd never put it on now. I'm stuck with it."

Drellmar touched the gem, and then pulled her hand back abruptly.

"I'm sorry. Did it hurt you?" Clara said.

Drellmar shook her fingers. "It's alright."

Clara tucked the necklace away. She deliberately matched Drellmar's pace, although there was a part of her that didn't want to talk to this strange woman at all. "Don't take this the wrong way," she said, forcing herself to make conversation, "but why are you helping us?"

Drellmar pursed her lips and turned her pale eyes to Clara. "Many reasons. But you and the Doctor belong together. I can see it."

"You've only just met us," Clara said, unease flipping her stomach. There was no reason at all for her to react like this. Ashildr liked Drellmar, and for all Ashildr's gargantuan blind spot when it came to the Doctor, she was usually a fairly good judge of character.

"A Portant sees things," Drellmar went on. "Your timelines are like nothing I've ever seen before. It is as if you have lived many lives. I can't explain it." Drellmar smiled gently. "And Time Lord timelines, well my people have drawings of those." She raised a delicate finger towards the Doctor. "His are complex, but in keeping with what one would expect. Yet when you come together, something new is created."

Clara laughed, a little uncomfortably. "What do you mean?"

"Your auras merge and become extraordinarily powerful. My people call it Saw-el-Ma. Destined to be joined. I tapped into that power to rebuff the Shade."

"I don't understand how you did it, but I'm grateful."

"I will protect you, if I can. But if the chrono-lock fails, nothing will stop the Shade from completing its contract."

Clara rubbed her neck with her palm, and then pressed her fingers into her carotid artery, as she had so many times over the years. No pulse. So the chrono-lock was still holding. She was safe for now.

The Doctor had strode ahead, his long paces crossing the landscape in looping strides, his restless energy showing no signs of abating. Clara had so many things she wanted to tell him, share with him, show him. So many things they could have said and done when they traveled together, so many chances missed. She longed for time alone with him. But with Ashildr watching them like some kind of self-appointed guard dog, it didn't look like that was going to happen.

Ahead, Ashildr had stopped. The Doctor was running his hand over the surface of a sheer wall of rock.

"What is it?" Clara asked, glad to be back with Ashildr and the Doctor. A stab of guilt for feeling that way about Drellmar ran through her.

"A way in, I think," Ashildr said. "What does the map say?"

Clara dug the map from her backpack. "The caverns start right here. There should be an entrance …"

"Aha," Ashildr said, shining a torch through a crack between two large boulders. She gave the stone a tentative shove with her shoulder. "I think we need to …" The stone didn't budge. Drellmar moved to Ashildr's side and put her hand on the rock face. Clara watched them both, examining the rock together, talking like old friends. Whatever vibes Drellmar gave off, Ashildr didn't seem affected in the least.

A few feet to the left, Clara spotted a series of paintings on the rocks. The paint was worn and faded now, and the pictures themselves crude. She followed them along the rock face. "Look, Doctor," she pointed at a scene of a village. A huge dragon swooped over the fields, breathing flames while match stick people ran in terror. Another scene depicted a knight dressed in full armor, sword aloft, shield raised against the dragon's terrible breath.

"No dragon, eh?" she said, poking him playfully.

He glanced at Ashildr and Drellmar, who were still talking, heads close together. He slipped his hands to her waist. "I'd fight a dragon for you," he said, drawing her into a kiss.

"Would you?" she whispered. She reached up and, and after a quick glance at Ashildr, she kissed him again. "Are we ever going to get any time alone together?"

"Soon, I hope. If this Dark Star next creates a stable bridge, we could have all the time in the world."

Clara hardly dared hope it was true, but she could hardly think of anything else. "This has to work," she whispered.

As he pressed his lips to hers again, his kiss was like a flame coursing through her, heating up her soul.

The Doctor glanced across to Ashildr. "Uh oh. We've been rumbled. We better see what she wants."

They wound their way back to Ashildr and Drellmar.

"So sorry to interrupt," Ashildr said acidly.

The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver in his hand now. "Um, if I set up a complex repeating resonance pattern at just the right frequency, then perhaps we can destabilise the molecules in the rock—"

"Yes, yes, all very sciency and impressive. But Drellmar thinks she can get us in."

"What, she's going to open the magical door to the dragon's lair with—"

Drellmar's eyes were closed, her white face serene. She lifted a hand. Slowly, very slowly, with a creaking groan, the rock moved aside.

"Woah," Clara exclaimed. Even the Doctor looked impressed.

Ashildr shot an imperious look in the Doctor's direction. "More things than you know," she mouthed.

"Alright," he conceded. "But I'm telling you, there'll be no dragon down there sleeping on a pile of gold."

#

Twenty minutes later, the Doctor skidded to a halt in the darkness in front of Clara. "Okay. So there's a huge dragon," he said, his voice filled with unashamed excitement. He'd nipped ahead while they consulted the map. Now, he stood in front of Clara, Ashildr, and Drellmar in the dark, moving from foot to foot, waving his hands. "It's fast asleep, snoring on an enormous pile of gold."

"No such thing as dragons?" Ashildr said, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"Who cares about being wrong when you find something as fabulous as this?" he said. He grabbed Clara's hand. "Come and see." This was what she loved about being with the Doctor. He really was the biggest five year old in the universe, full of awe and excitement, always curious. It was infectious.

In the chamber, a dragon lay curled in its nest, sleeping on a mound of gold plates, ornate cups, candlesticks, crowns, and thick, regal chains. The dragon itself was covered in bronze-green scales, its underbelly pale, and its wings tucked neatly into its sides. It looked almost peaceful, with its eyes closed, and its nostrils flaring gently as it breathed in and out. Dotted around the cavern were jewel-encrusted swords, several shields emblazoned with the motifs of great Fyrian houses, and a silver mirror with a gilded frame.

"Meet Egret, the not-dragon," the Doctor said softly.

Clara couldn't help but be swept up in his enthusiasm. The beast was magnificent. There was a round hole in the cavern ceiling, and the dragon's scales glimmered in the low evening sun.

"Where's the Dark Star?" Clara whispered.

"Could be anywhere," the Doctor said.

Clara took a step forwards. The picture of the Dark Star had shown a smooth, shining oval shape, as dark as night and about the size of an ostrich egg. Clara grabbed a fistful of the Doctor's jacket and pointed to the dragon's head. The Dark Star was tucked under Egret's chin. Of course it was. Where else would it be?

The Doctor grinned, as if he was tickled by the whole turn of events. He really didn't seem to mind being wrong.

Ashildr and Drellmar padded into the cavern behind them. Ashildr let out a long breath.

"Will your mind trick thing work on a dragon?" Clara asked, remembering how Drellmar had turned the guards when they first met.

"Unlikely. Not much to work with in a beast's mind."

Clara turned to the Doctor. "Do you speak dragon?"

"Let's find out." Before Clara could stop him, he approached the sleeping dragon. "Just wondering, if it's not too much trouble, could we borrow that egg?"

Clara groaned. This was reckless, even for him. She grabbed a shield that was propped against the wall and passed it to Ashildr, before taking another herself and creeping after the Doctor.

The dragon lifted its head, slowly. Its eyes flicked open. They were crimson.

"Doctor—" Clara hissed.

"Well look at you beauty!" the Doctor took another step towards the beast.

Egret's nostrils flared.

"Tell me, have you always been a dragon?" the Doctor called up, inching closer to Egret's head.

Clara smelled sulfur. A trickle of grey smoke rose in a thin line from Egret's nostril, curling towards the ceiling.

Ashildr shuffled to the other side of the cavern. Egret's head swung towards her, his eyes as red as a scarlet sunset.

Clara reached the Doctor's side, holding the shield in front of her. "I hope you have a plan!"

He grinned. "His chin isn't on the egg anymore. That's a step in the right direction." He scooped up a long spear with a golden tip and shoved it at the egg. It started to roll down the mound of gold objects, sending trinkets clattering in its wake.

Egret's head swung back. His red eyes settled on the Doctor.

The dragon's mouth opened in a terrible roar. Flames blasted at them.

Clara raised the shield and yanked the Doctor down, a moment too late. His hair was singed on one side, the air thick with the smell of burning.

"Are you alright?" Clara yelled, as fire surged over and around the gold shield.

He nodded and patted at his hair, his face falling into a frown. "That was rude."

Clara peeked over the edge of the shield. Ashildr had a sword in her hand now, too, her face fierce. She never really forgot how to be a Viking.

The egg had stopped rolling when it got wedged between a plate and a large golden crown halfway down the gold mountain.

Atop the pile of gold, Egret snorted, and stretched his wings, eyes settling on the egg.

A deep rumbling filled the cavern, and then flames roared from his mouth.

Clara heard Ashildr coughing in the thick smoke that filled the air.

The Doctor weighed the gold-tipped spear in his hands.

"Hmm," he said.

"What are you going to do?" Clara whispered, still clutching the shield in front of them both.

The egg rolled a little further. Egret flapped his wings, leaped down the mountain of gold and grabbed for the egg with razor-sharp talons.

"This!" The Doctor lunged at the egg with the spear. Egret whipped his long, barbed tail. The Doctor ducked, but not quite fast enough. The blow sent him spinning towards the cavern wall.

"Doctor!" Clara yelled.

Clara grabbed a sword. She raised her shield, and then slashed at Egret's front leg. The dragon roared in agony, blasting more fire across the cave. The egg rolled from his claws. Clara stumbled towards the Doctor, through choking clouds of smoke. They both crouched low against the cavern wall. The Doctor grabbed another shield, and held it up above their heads. His face was smeared with blood now, where the dragon's tail had caught his cheek.

They huddled close, shoulder to shoulder behind the shields. She wiped the blood from his face with her thumb. He didn't flinch, he just looked at her in the eyes, his mouth crinkled into a half grin. He was exhilarated, she could see it. She could feel his excitement, and it rushed through her too. Despite it all, there was nowhere she'd rather be.

She leaned over and kissed him. "Is this what it will be like when we're together?"

"We'll fight dragons all day and make love all night. How does that sound?" he said, his eyes sparking. Before she could even answer he peeked around the shield for a moment, and then snatched his head back. "Get ready to run."

Through the grey-blue smoke filling the chamber, Clara saw Egret scratching frantically on the gold, as if searching for his egg.

Clara choked. She snatched a breath and smoke filled her lungs. "Doctor," she croaked, clutching her throat. "Something's wrong."

The Dark Star necklace hummed and juddered around her neck. With shaking fingers, she pulled the chain out from under her jumper. The gem vibrated angrily in her hands.

Clara was hot, hotter than she ever been before, sweat beading on her forehead. Her head throbbed. A trickle of something ran from her nose. As she dragged her trembling hand over her top lip, a smear of blood trailed across her finger. She tried to focus on the Doctor. He was saying something, very important, she was sure. If he would just stop blurring and shimmering.

Ashildr emerged from the smoke at the other side of the cavern. She clashed her sword against her shield. "Hey, leave them alone!" she yelled at the Dragon.

The dragon bellowed his fury and whipped around toward Ashildr, his tail smashing into the wall over Clara's head. Splinters of stone clattered onto the shield. Clara let the gem drop and covered her ears. Everything was too loud. Nausea fluttered in her stomach.

A swirling silver vortex began to form in the air to the left. Clara gasped. She tried to shout. No words came.

She stared in horror as a dark shape appeared in the shimmering tear.

A black mass became a feathered cloak. A gold mask.

Clara clutched her chest, pain and fear rippling through her body.

The Quantum Shade had come for her.

#

"Clara," the Doctor said, his fingers shaking as he gripped the gem around her neck that was vibrating so angrily. What was it doing? He peeked out past the shield again. Ashildr was still trying to distract the dragon, shouting and then dodging behind a stack of gold. Egret bellowed and turned in the chamber.

Inside the quantum tear, a black figure grew larger every second.

Pale as death, Clara trembled beside him.

"Listen," he said urgently, "we are going to run that way. Do you hear me, Clara?"

Her chest was stuttering now. Her eyes were glazed. Blood dripped from her nose.

"Clara, can you hear me? We need to run." Desperation curled around his throat. He couldn't lose her now. Not when they had a life together in sight.

Her head bobbed and rolled as she tried to focus on him. "Run. Towards the dragon," she said, blearily.

"Yes. Just trust me. You trust me, don't you?"

Behind them, the Shade was almost fully formed. The only way out of the chamber was still blocked by the roaring dragon with the Dark Star egg in its claws. If Clara had ever trusted him, she needed to trust him now.

She nodded, mutely, her lips slightly parted, her breath coming in gasps, a trickle of blood on her top lip.

"Right. Now. Run." As he forced her to her feet, the shield she had been holding clattered to the floor. He gripped his own shield with one hand, covering them both, and put his other hand around her back. They ran.

As if in slow motion, the necklace bounced on her chest.

Ahead, barely visible in the dim light, the dragon's bronze claws curled around the Dark Star. Ashildr was beckoning them towards the entrance.

The Doctor pushed forward, the shield sheltering them from another fiery blast. When that was spent, in the few seconds before the dragon could breathe fire again, the Doctor flung his shield away. He gripped the gem on Clara's necklace between his fingers, ignoring the searing cold and the sickening vibration. He pushed the necklace at the shining black egg clenched in the dragon's vicious claws. The gems touched.

The Dark Star in Clara's necklace and the dragon's egg merged in a flash of bright light.

The dragon bellowed.

Clara screamed. Her cry pierced the Doctor's hearts, so like that haunting death-scream on the Trap Street. She was breathing raggedly, erratically. She'd gasp one or two tortured breaths, then stop. He pressed his fingers to her throat. Her pulse flared and faded, flared and faded. Her legs buckled. He scooped her into his arms. The Doctor's hearts thundered, pounding his chest, thumping through his head. He wouldn't let her go, not again. He couldn't lose her now.

The Doctor searched blindly as the smoke cleared. Reflected by the mirror against the wall, he glimpsed a naked, shivering, young man with dark brown skin, clutching his arm, blood seeping through his fingers. From the slash of Clara's blade. Egret.

The Shade stepped out of the tear and into the dark cavern, black feathered cloak rippling in the darkness, the gold of its mask glinting against the gold all around. It stopped before the Doctor, with its head tilted to one side, as if it were waiting.

"You're interfering with the chrono-lock," the Doctor spat.

"It is not my doing. You create your own fate." The Shade's tone was light, as if it didn't care one way or another for the fate of mortals or immortals.

"How?" the Doctor demanded. "With the Dark Stars?"

The Shade laughed, a dry, rattling laugh. "They create a bridge between your worlds. Yet they also weaken the chrono-lock. Elegant, isn't it?"

The Doctor saw Drellmar from the corner of his eye, swirling her white cloak around Egret's shoulders.

Then she turned to the Shade. "You are powerful within the terms of your contract, but you didn't do this on your own."

The Shade shrugged. "I am a Shade. I take many forms,and work for more than one master." The Shade turned to Ashildr, and made a low, mocking bow.

Ashildr shook her head, wiping her eyes, as the smoke cleared. "I would break that contract, if I could. The Time Lords left me with little choice."

The Shade said nothing.

"But who is doing this, now?" the Doctor pressed. "Who cares enough?" He had to know. If he understood who, then maybe he'd have a chance. Clara lay still in his arms now, deathly pale, her chest no longer rising or falling. The Dark Star on her necklace had changed, too. It had become a swirling galaxy of silver specks trapped inside a glittering black gem. It lay quite still on her chest. The Doctor gently put Clara down, propping her up against the cavern wall. Blood had pooled on her lip and dripped onto her jumper, but it was no longer running from her nose. So whatever had made her breathe again, her heart pump blood again, had now stopped.

A prickle of hope tingled in the Doctor's hearts. "You might as well tell me who's behind this," he said lightly. "Who keeps sending you on missions you can't complete?" He straightened, and then picked up a plate from the heap of gold. He sniffed it and then tossed it back on the pile.

"I will not speak the name," the Shade said, pacing up and down the cavern. Gold cups clattered to the floor by the Shade's feet where the Doctor had carelessly dislodged the pile.

"Oh, quite right. I'd flap off back to your master now and start apologising. After all, these quantum bridges you've created are a double clawed trap. So, for example," he said, glancing at Drellmar, "the exchange force of the electron-positron annihilation sequence would reflect quite badly on you." The Doctor picked up a thick gold necklace. "Here, why don't you take a trinket?" The Doctor turned to Egret, who was shivering by the pile of gold. "You don't mind, do you, Egret?"

The boy shook his head, miserably.

"See? There's plenty of stuff laying around. It might improve your master's temper." The Doctor dangled the chain in front of the Shade.

The Shade ignored the Doctor's offer. "I fear nothing," it sneered, balling its claw-like hands into a fist. Then it stopped pacing. "How many seconds are in eternity, Doctor?"

"What?" The Doctor looked up from fiddling with an ornate gilded mirror.

"And what came before?" the Shade asked.

"Before eternity?" The Doctor chewed his lip, resting the mirror against the wall. "Well, you've got me there."

The Shade scoffed, swishing his cloak. "It's a matter of time."

"It always is," the Doctor said softly, coming to a halt between Clara and the Shade. Drellmar ducked behind him and pressed her fingers to Clara's neck. Then she nodded at the Doctor.

"You've overplayed your hand," the Doctor said to the Shade. "Clara's not out of the chrono-lock yet. If this Dark Star opened that portal, then it can close it again." He nodded to Drellmar.

Drellmar lifted Clara's necklace between her fingers. It sizzled in the air, crackling around her hand, singing her skin, but she didn't let go. Drellmar directed the bright light shooting from the necklace towards the mirror the Doctor had just placed against the wall.

Too late, the Shade realised what was happening. The light, in streams of many colours, bounced off the mirror and towards the shimmering tear in reality.

The Shade screeched, and then twisted on the spot, spinning faster and faster becoming a black blur. Then its feathered cloak folded in on itself with a sharp crack.

In its place was a raven.

The raven cawed once, and then flapped towards the quantum tear. It vanished in a flash of silver light. The tear popped closed.

Drellmar slumped to the floor next to Clara, clutching her burned hand. Ashildr rushed to her side. Egret stood watching, shaking, next to his pile of gold, huddling Drellmar's white cloak around him.

The Doctor crouched between them Clara and Drellmar, looking from one to the other, catching his breath.

Clara's eyelids flickered. "Doctor," she whispered, her voice little more than a soft croak. The necklace lay on her chest, glowing shades of green, morphing to blue, and then silver. He took it in his fingers to tuck it away under her shirt. As he did, it flared iridescent blue.

The Doctor felt the weight of ages on his shoulders. This had been too close. Too damn close. The necklace had changed, it seemed more reactive than ever, its pattern of silver stars tumbling endlessly and flaring at his touch. He rubbed his forehead, his singed hair was short and wiry now on one side, and the dragon's tail had left a raw welt on his cheek. He needed time. Time to work out what the Shade meant with his riddle about what came before eternity. What could come before time?

He'd need to fix the chrono-lock to stabilise Clara. Something had to be tampering with the extraction chamber. The only way to know for sure would be to go back. Back to the last place in the universe he wanted to go. Back to Gallifrey. But right now, he needed to get Clara and Drellmar somewhere safe. And he couldn't leave Egret wandering half-naked around a dragon's lair under a mountain.

The Doctor closed his eyes for a second, marshaling his thoughts, summoning his reserve.

"Doctor? We should go." Ashildr said, putting a hand on his arm. Her tone wasn't rough or harsh, and she was right.

The Doctor nodded and looked up at Ashildr. "Let's get the hell out of here."