I used a soundtrack for the dragon fight at the end, Chasing Daybreak from FE3H.

33: A Fleet of Airships

It took longer to get to the Far Silverwastes than Caoilfhionn had anticipated, and he began to worry that they would not make it back in time… but that had always been a possibility, and Trahearne knew about it, and understood, so he tried not to worry too much about it. Lighting the runes with the magic torch opened a portal to them, revealing a tall, pitch-black tunnel that wound deep into the ground. They went slowly, following Annhilda with the torch, conversing in low murmurs that echoed through the tunnel, their footsteps scrunching on the sandy floor. Caoilfhionn caught sight of large cobwebs and – yes, they had to fight spiders briefly to get by. Caithe, if she was here, had probably just run by them unseen.

Wegaff tugged at his sleeve partway down the tunnel. "Hey, while we have a moment, I wanted to talk to you. You remember the vision from the Eternal Alchemy device?"

"I do," Caoilfhionn said in a low voice. It had been imprinted on him indelibly, and he still didn't understand it, still found his mind a wash of confused feelings to think about it.

"If it is true that Tyria is, essentially, a vast mechanism and the dragons are part of it, then shouldn't it stand to reason that killing them is not necessarily the right thing to do?"

"Huh?" Of all the people he thought might be a dragon apologist, Wegaff had not been one of them…

"No, no, I know what you're thinking, I mean machines generally don't work so well when they've parts removed. And yes, I'm aware of all the things they do that threaten our civilization, including the fact that the world will end when they consume all the magic, and that the world will also end if there's too much magic. And we know that the dragons were defeated ten thousand years ago, but we don't know at what cost. What if killing these dragons makes the surviving ones stronger? How are we going to defeat the last one? What other issues are going to come up as their number dwindles?"

"We can't just leave off," Caoilfhionn said. "They already threaten to consume us all. If the world is out of balance by our actions, we cannot stop halfway."

"Aye, but I wonder if we'll come to regret it in the end."

"I can't think that way," Caoilfhionn said. "What if – we have Glint's egg, right? Glint was not evil, and her child would not be at birth, either. All things have a right to grow! So if we, through the years, centuries, however long, raise this egg to become a dragon who understands us as she did, then when it becomes old and strong enough to be an Elder Dragon, perhaps we will find a way to live in harmony with it, to break this harmful cycle. And we should need the children of the other dragons as well, to keep the balance. And seek to find a balance without leading to deadly static." Maybe not even to break the cycle, just to tone it down so that neither dragons nor mortals had to lose their lives.

Wegaff scoffed. "I don't think that's possible. Us non-dragons don't live long enough to keep such a relationship going. It would go wrong eventually."

"Maybe that's what we Sylvari were born for," Caoilfhionn said. "No one knows how old we can live, yet. Perhaps we will live long enough to turn from slayers of dragons to wardens of dragons."

"I'm not saying we can or should stop fighting dragons," Wegaff said. "But I think we should also not be surprised if the Eternal Alchemy suddenly flips on its head at some point because of what we're doing."

"I will be surprised," Caoilfhionn said, smiling. "I won't be able to help it."

"Oh yes, I will probably be too, when it happens. But I won't be surprised that it happened."

"What's that up ahead?" Annhilda said, lifting the divine torch yet higher – but there was a strange gleam from ahead, that did not come from reflecting the light she bore.

They rounded a corner, and everyone stopped in wonder. "Oh, what is this place?" Kasmeer cried.

They'd come out into a massive cavern, and everywhere they looked was gold. The stones were gold, the ruins across from them were gold, even half the jungle plants about them were shining gold. It was all lit by some unseen source of light, perhaps from the sheer concentration of ancient magic there, soft and even and warm. There was a shimmer in the air, as if each gasp set the stones to ringing harmoniously.

"Hmm," Wegaff said. "This will bear analyzing. Surely these stones are not actually solid gold."

"I wish it were, though," Braham said. "Can you imagine what Hoelbrak could build with it?"

"A new lodge honouring one of the Spirits, maybe," Annhilda said.

"It's so beautiful," Caoilfhionn said. "I hope I can show Trahearne, later."

"Didn't your vision have a golden location in it?" Marjory asked.

He shook himself. "It did. But I don't think it was here. It was far greater than this. This is… a taste of what I'm looking for."

"What we're looking for," Damara said. "Well, we're on the right track, then! Weird, how all these things are intersecting. We went to find a clue about Caithe, and found a clue to the egg instead."

"Well, Caithe has the egg, so that works for me," Phiadi said. "Can you get on with it? We still have a launch to catch."

"Right," Caoilfhionn said, drawing the last seed from his coat and following where it led him – to an alcove with a sleeping sack tucked in it. Caithe's, perhaps? There was nothing to mark whose it was, but this was the place. He bent to plant the seed…

He woke not very much later, though the magical light had not changed down here, and sat up, tired and confused and upset.

"Caithe has a lot of rough memories, huh," Damara said. He nodded mutely. "She's here, by the way."

He jumped up and ran out to where the others were staring; she was standing on the other side of the cavern, near the tunnel entrance, carrying a large backpack woven of leaves on her back. No doubt the egg was inside.

"Caithe," he said, as he got closer, and stopped. He didn't know what to say.

"How did you find this place?" Caithe asked, though she sounded more curious than angry. But still wary. She was not here to give him the egg, he could tell that much.

"Mother gave me memory seeds."

She stiffened. "Then you know. What Wynne told me, and what I did."

"Yes. Is it true?"

"Which part?" She shook her head regretfully. "Yes… it's all true."

"Why was Wynne the only one to know?" he cried. "How do we not all know?"

"Caoilfhionn, what are you talking about?" Annhilda asked quietly from behind him.

"Her Dream revealed it to her," Caithe said. "Protecting us from that truth was her Wyld Hunt. If we all knew, everyone in the world would know – and then they would hate us and kill us."

"You're not who I thought you were," he said, angry and upset – he'd looked up to her so much, and her selfishness, her mistakes had destroyed what he had known of her.

"None of us are who others perceive us to be," Caithe said steadily. "My actions put the future of our race squarely on my shoulders."

"Now that burden is on me as well," he said. "And what do I do with it? Do I guard it like you?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," she said. "The secret will come out on its own soon enough. Already, Sylvari have been losing control of themselves. Mordremoth won't stop there."

He bowed his head and took a deep breath. "Then it is all moot. But I need you to give me the egg, right now."

"It must be protected," Caithe said, backing away.

"I will protect it! This task was given to me."

"You and I are on the same side. Don't ever forget that, Caoilfhionn."

"Caithe-" He was cut off by a resounding snarl, and the same dragon champion that had attacked the Pale Mother squeezed through the tunnel, hurling itself towards them.

"The Dragon's Shadow is upon us!" Caithe cried, and ran, vanishing from sight.

Third time paid for all, he minded himself as the dragon crashed into their midst, summoning minions from the sands and roaring at them. Vines sprang up around them, not the prickly strangling sort, but they formed barriers around them, separating them all from each other. But he was in the ring with the dragon, with Annhilda and Phiadi. It would not escape this time; it could not fly in here. They'd never get a better chance.

He didn't take his eyes off it as it crept around the edge of the ring, dodging as it lunged to swat at them with a hefty claw, as it lowered its head to breathe corruption at them. His sap thrummed in his veins as he slashed with fire and stone at the vines in his way, getting up close to it – but it drew back, drawing vines before itself, as if to taunt him. Laranthir's arrows were still stuck in its face around its eyes.

Annhilda lifted the white torch high and swung it with a shout, scorching the vines away, opening a path to the dragon. He didn't need a second invitation and bolted forward, slamming into the dragon's shoulder with lightning, rolling away before it could turn and bite him. Phiadi's minions rushed past him and launched themselves at it mindlessly as she cursed the ground beneath it, trying to drain its lifeforce.

It slammed down its foot nearly on top of him; he dodged but was sent tumbling back, rolling over and over on the cool sand. He picked himself up to see Annhilda running forward with her sword and the torch. It really didn't seem to like that torch much – if only they could spread its fire-!

He skidded forward on heels of flame, reaching out to the torch to see if he could channel its particular magic, for a time at least, and felt its unfamiliar flow pass to him, like a piece of a cloud. "What are you doing?" Annhilda exclaimed.

His hands were glowing white and his fire sparkled like diamonds. "Let's force it into a corner! Block the exit so it can't get away!"

"Haha! I like the way you think."

"It thought we were trapped in here with it, but really it's trapped in here with us!" Phiadi said.

"It's a good thing Trahearne insisted we all come along," Kasmeer said from the other side of the vines. "Imagine if it had only been the three or four of you."

"No, let's not imagine that," Rox said. "Teragriff on your left!"

"Thanks!"

Caoilfhionn had been carving a huge arc in the sand with his dagger, leaving a trail of white fire; Annhilda was ahead of him, burning away vines before him, and Phiadi was fighting strangling shadows and more vines beside him. The dragon was lunging at them, but still shying away from the fire, screeching at them – no, at him. He was the one it wanted; could it have remembered him from the Grove? Was it connected to the egg?

Well, he wasn't fighting for mere survival anymore. He was fighting with his friends to slay it for good.

The circle was perhaps three-fourths complete when the dragon roared, slamming its paws into the ground and sending up a wave of stone towards them. Annhilda backpedalled before it struck her, but there were more vines coming up in the wake of the stones, big ones, thick ones. Phiadi summoned a new set of minions with a venomous hiss – and was slapped away by a vine.

The dragon roared and sprang forward, and its left foot landed on Annhilda, crushing her to the ground. Caoilfhionn shouted in concern; the torch rolled away from her limp hand. The dragon's eyes were on him, and it took a couple more steps towards him, tensing to spring.

He struck first, taking back to Lightning and tearing towards the torch, snatching it up and rolling under the dragon's jaws. Determination surged through him with every breath, and he sprang to the attack, thrusting the torch into the dragon's face and letting loose with all his power.

White flame erupted before him and washed over the dragon, which screamed and stumbled away, wings flapping uselessly in the enclosed space. Its face was horribly charred, and he pursued it as the vines gave way before him, as it fled towards the ruins at the back of the cave. It tried to climb them, but lost its grip and tumbled to the sandy floor again. Its exposed throat was right in front of him and he stabbed the torch into the twined branches there, channelling through the torch, and the entire dragon caught ablaze like a pyre.

He stood there a moment, panting, watching it burn from nose to tail, making sure it would never rise again. Then Braham whooped from behind him. "Awesome!"

"Well done, pup," Annhilda's voice said creakily from behind him, and he turned to see her sitting up with Damara trying to heal her injuries. "Stop fussing, I'm just bruised and winded."

"You got stepped on by a dragon," Damara pointed out. "It could have been a lot worse."

"But it isn't."

"The perfect warm-up to take down Mordremoth!" Braham said.

"Are you going to be all right?" Caoilfhionn asked anxiously, hurrying back to them.

Annhilda grinned. "Yeah. Really. Just bruised."

"But we lost Caithe," Kasmeer said. "I'm glad we won, but we didn't really gain anything…"

"We gained some revenge for the Pale Tree," Caoilfhionn said. "Every Sylvari will be pleased. Surely Mordremoth cannot summon another lieutenant like that in a hurry."

"True," Marjory said. "But now where do we look for her?"

Braham growled. "I've had it with her secrets. I know my mother trusts her, but I don't. She took the egg and we need to get it back."

"Perhaps Destiny's Edge will have an idea where she's gone now," Kasmeer said. "I know they didn't before, but perhaps they will now? With the new things we've learned?"

"I doubt it," Phiadi said. "You heard Logan earlier. They didn't talk about personal things."

"Either way, we should get back," Damara said, helping Annhilda to her feet. "I have no idea what time it is in here, but we're pretty late. And we can't use the waypoint, it's broken."

With no warning at all, there was a burst of intrusive pain in his head – and a burst of tight fear in his chest. He fell to his knees, clutching at both, gasping at the suddenness.

"Caoilfhionn! What's wrong-?" He could hear a confused cluster of voices around him, dimly.

Slowly, he recovered himself as that rumbling pain in his head left him, but the fear in his chest remained. And he recognized it, though before such feelings had been faint. "Trahearne!" He was bonded to his love, even at this distance, and shared dimly his joys, his sorrows… and now his pain and stress, sharp and clear in its intensity.

"What?" Annhilda knelt in front of him. "Caoilfhionn, please tell us what's going on."

He looked up at her. "Something's happened to the fleet. Trahearne is in danger."

"They must have launched," Braham said. "We're really late."

"What else?" Annhilda said. "You and Caithe were talking about secrets, and she said it was all going to come out. Can you explain, or is it not time yet?"

He sighed. "Mordremoth created the Sylvari. We are not susceptible to it because we are plants like it is. We are susceptible to it because we are intended to be its minions."

"What," chorused most of the group.

"The Dragon called… and I fear many of my people answered against their will."

"Is that what happened with Aerin and Scarlet?" Phiadi asked.

"Yes. The Mother Tree protects us with the Dream," Caoilfhionn said, thinking back to what she had said before, thinking back to his vision of the Eternal Alchemy. "Aerin was one of the Soundless, and Ceara too rejected our Mother, so they did not have her protection. But even with her protection, the Dragon is very strong."

"Can we trust you?" Annhilda said, looking closely into his eyes.

He looked back steadily. "Yes. I know who I am. You know who I am. If I cease to be that person, I trust you will be able to kill me before I hurt anyone." He didn't allow himself to think too closely about what that would be like. He couldn't let anything distract him from the goals setting in his heart like steel. His Wyld Hunt baying like a pack of hounds, his vital quest to protect the dragon egg, and most insistent of all, his heart's unyielding desire to see Trahearne safe again.

"Kill you!?" Damara cried. "There's no cure?"

"There wasn't a cure for the Risen," Caoilfhionn said, pushing himself to his feet. "I think as long as we fight, we can be saved. But it's like the Nightmare – once we are lost, we are lost forever."

"That's terrible," Kasmeer said. "I'm so sorry."

"This is our punishment for being immune to the other dragons, I guess," Caoilfhionn said. "But first and foremost, I have to get to Trahearne. I fear something terrible has happened."

"You don't think he's been taken over…" Phiadi said.

"No. He has a very strong mind, and loves the Mother Tree. But he's in danger in other ways."

"Well, I trust you," Annhilda said. "You're part of Hope's Legacy, to the end. Now let's go!"

They could not go so far without stopping to rest for the night, but even from where they were, they could see the smoke rising from the Heart of Maguuma. Caoilfhionn could not sleep, watching it through the night. He could smell it even from where they were camped. But on the next day, they made it to Amber Sandfall – and found the Pact abuzz with frantic activity there. "Thank goodness we established this position for exactly this purpose," Annhilda muttered as they looked around.

"You! Sylvari!" Two Norn and a Charr ran towards Caoilfhionn, pointing weapons at him. "Get in the corner with the others!"

Caoilfhionn gasped, taking a step back. He'd known they might have figured it out, but to see all the soldiers looking at him with fear and hostility-

"No," Annhilda said, stepping in front of him. "Caoilfhionn's in my guild, and I'm taking him with me."

"But Commander-"

"No objections!" Annhilda cried. "I trust him and so should you. You all know Caoilfhionn – if he turned it would be quite obvious. Mordremoth's corruption is not subtle."

"I… yes, Commander."

"Now what's going on over here?" In the corner was a group of Sylvari, sitting with their hands on their heads, while several Charr and humans pointed rifles at them.

"I don't understand," said one of the Sylvari, plaintively. "You know us too. We've fought and bled alongside you for the Pact."

The Charr growled. "So did the Sylvari aboard the fleet, and most turned without warning. We're not taking any more chances with you."

"But I don't feel any different. I'm still me, still a loyal member of the Pact." The other Sylvari nodded.

The rifles didn't move. "You're also a dragon minion. You could be an enemy and not know it."

"This is preposterous. We're not a threat!"

"Maybe not, but we can't take that risk. You're all confined to quarters until this is over."

"Hello," Damara said, stepping in, and the Charr turned and saluted her.

"Commander Damara!"

"We don't have time to deal with this now," Damara said. "We're needed where the Fleet went down. But don't mistreat them. Remember every one of them is here because they wanted to fight against Mordremoth."

"Yes, Commander."

Caoilfhionn followed Annhilda, his stomach churning with nerves. She stopped only long enough for them to gather fresh supplies and what sparse intel they could get, and then headed back out to the canyon that led west through the cliffs into the jungle. The sooner, the better – they were all watching him with unfriendly eyes and it made his skin crawl. The Pact had looked on him fondly before, as the Marshal's lover, and this aboutface shook him deeply.

"This all has… Frostbite a little anxious," Rox muttered to Braham as they headed out. "I mean, because Destiny's Edge was on board. I hope they're okay…"

Braham nodded and muttered back. "I'm with Frostbite. Hope's Legacy, Destiny's Edge, and airships killed Zhaitan. How did it go so wrong this time?"

"We're about to see for ourselves," Marjory said.

"Oh, look who it is!" Kasmeer cried, and waved.

Taimi was standing near the canyon mouth on top of her golem, waving at them. "Hey, boss! Rata Sum was all abuzz over the Pact Fleet disaster. I knew you'd be going in, so I came to pitch in. Scruffy and I gave these locals a lesson in Mordrem bashing while we waited for you. Oh, and Canach here helped, too."

"Yes… I 'helped'," Canach muttered darkly. "And I thought the Firstborn were full of themselves." He huffed and looked at Annhilda. "Commander. Countess Anise sent me to support you and represent the Shining Blade in the fight against Mordremoth."

"Understood," Annhilda said. "You'll probably be safer with us, anyway. How did you hear about it so quickly in Rata Sum, Taimi?"

"Good chain of communication, I guess," Taimi said, and shrugged. "By now, probably all of Tyria knows about it. I mean, this is top-priority news, and Rata Sum's awfully close to the Heart of the jungle if things get worse."

"And some news takes months to disseminate," Phiadi complained under her breath.

"And how'd you get here so quickly?" Braham asked.

"A few friends in the right places, and Scruffy runs faster than you might think."

"The jungle won't contain Mordremoth for long," Canach said. "I also have an obvious personal stake in defeating the jungle dragon. In any case, I am at your disposal."

"Good," Annhilda said. "We're going in. Follow me."

It took an eternity – or an hour – to traverse the tunnel that led from the desert of the Silverwastes to the humidity of the Heart of Maguuma. He could smell it halfway – and smoke, stronger than before. Finally, finally, they came out into smoggy clouded daylight. A promentory was before him, jutting bare over the jungle depths, and he ran ahead of the others to see.

The jungle stretched out before him, a twisted mass of gigantic vines and burning airships. He had not imagined – could not have imagined – the extent of the destruction. He could not hear the others' shock and horror through his own fear and grief. "Trahearne!"