WAKE UP. YOU are not alone anymore, my aceri. I’m here now.

The low, masculine voice touched with a purring thrum intruded on Tiwaz’s sleeping mind, jolting her awake. Terrifyingly foreign but wonderfully familiar, she looked around the sleeping chamber for its source. Instinctively aware that it was noon, even with being so far underground, she knew thrill and alarm that she was in her panther form. She struggled to free herself of the jumble of blankets that only seemed to tangle themselves around her more.

Her thrashing roused Doom and Tracker who were sleeping on either side of her, as they always did when they hunted together. “Ti, relax,” Doom shouted to get her attention. “We can’t help if you keep moving around like this.”

“Cat-Sister, what distresses you?” the wolflen asked as he got out of the bed. He and Doom worked to untangle the sheets, the progress of which the thrashing cat confounded. He looked on with consternation as she tumbled awkwardly onto the floor when he managed to grab the sheet and pulled it clear.

“High sun,” she replied, the wolflen tongue the only one she could speak while in her panther shape. “It is high sun and I am changed.”

“What?” Doom and Tracker traded bewildered looks as Doom hurried to his friend’s side, stopping her from twisting around trying to look at herself. While Tracker explained to their newly roused and still sleepy companions, Doom grabbed her by the ruff on either side of her head to force her to look at him. “Ti! Calm down.” She stilled, staring at him with wide, feline gold eyes. He stroked her head and shoulders with worry. “Can you change back?”

“I will try,” she finally stated. He released her, then drew back in shock when a blackness obscured her form, but he was close enough to see a more unsettling change through the cloud. Instead of strange, painful contortions, layers of her body seemed to vanish, then reassemble. The change began and finished faster, before most would have time to react.

When the cloud faded, she was on her hands and knees, fully clothed in the softest black suede accented with golden buckles, rings, and rivets. Her arm was bare, displaying the ring and red feather that she’d won during the wolflen Solstice Games. She sat on her heels and stared at her hands, then looked up at Doom, her shock deepening as her feline-gold eyes widened and jaw dropped.

He reached out to touch her hair and cheek. “Your hair, Ti. It’s brown. And your eyes…” He blinked. “Why are you looking at me like that?” He watched her hand as she reached up…and touched something not there when they had fallen asleep.

“Horns,” she half-whispered. A delighted smile lit up her face. “Doom, your horns are growing back!” He reached up with both hands reflexively, the sound of his shirt tearing coinciding with the perplexed expression that something was not quite right. He tugged the garment off and turned much as she had earlier. She grabbed his hand and tugged him over towards the large wall mirror so he could see. “And your wings! Oh, Doom, wings and horns! The dragons were right, it just took time for things to be set right for you!”

Gareth rubbed his eyes, looking sideways at the staring ogre. “How long have we been asleep?” he asked, bewildered. “I’d think we’d have noticed those before now.”

“I have…no idea.” He rubbed his eyes to look at Doom and Tiwaz, then looked down at his stomach as it growled loud enough to draw everyone’s attention. He colored a bit as he cleared his throat at the others’ outright laughter. “Given how hungry I am, at least four days.” He turned to return to the main room of the apartment. “I’ll make breakfast. Lunch. Whatever. Food! I’m starving.”

“Probably quite literally,” Gareth replied drolly as he followed. Once the other two were gone, the ecstatic joy the pair exhibited subsided.

Tracker looked between Doom and Tiwaz, tilting his head. “You are not happy?” he asked them quietly in wolflen.

Doom managed to smile. “This is a dream I have dreamt so many times.” He looked down at Tiwaz when she suddenly hugged him fiercely tight, putting a reassuring arm around her. “I am afraid I will wake up and it will be as it has always been, with me a disfigured mockery of my people.”

Tiwaz did not speak for a time, her pack-mates waiting patiently. “For most of my life, I was just a gladiator. Alimar’s tool. Other people’s entertainment. I was…nothing.”

“You were never nothing to me,” Doom growled, hugging her tighter.

“I was nothing,” she reiterated. “To me. I was empty. A shell. I hid my pain from you because you did not need more than what Alimar made you suffer. I pretended not to notice you hid yours from me.” She closed her eyes, resting her cheek over his heart, the strong, dull thud soothing. “I feared if you knew, you would become angry at Alimar and try to hurt him. We agreed to live to see him dead.” She looked up at him, despairing. “I did not know what else to do to make sure that happened.”

Soon, you will be ready to face him, the low, masculine voice whispered again. But not yet. Your soul has bled for too long. There is much healing to be done.

“Who speaks?! Where are you?” She spun away from Doom, looking around wildly. “Didn’t you hear it?” she demanded.

Tracker and Doom traded bewildered, worried looks. “None but you can hear Ghalnecha,” Tracker said slowly.

“It isn’t Ghalnecha! Ghalnecha is female and sleeping still. This voice…This is male.” She strode out of the sleeping chamber, ignoring the queries from Gareth and Simpkins as she headed back out into the main chamber. “I know it. But I don’t know it.” She shook Doom’s hand off her arm roughly, her attention entirely consumed with this strange voice. Her pace, at first an uncertain walk, slowly turned into an all-out run down another hall.

Her friends barely avoided running over her when she skidded to a stop at an archway that lead into darkness. She disappeared into the blackness just before they could ask what was wrong. A low, snarling growl alarmed the four males.

“Mya, light!” Simpkins ordered. The tiny wind sprite flew away from his shoulder and glowed so bright it was as though the sun shined through the mountain above them. Around a grand, circular pool of water sat three massive dragon skulls. Giant, blue diamonds glowed to life from the center skull’s eye sockets, emeralds within the one to the left and rubies in the one to the right. In a half circle around the dais, the wall was an enormous, perfect mirror.

“Keth’s tail,” Gareth breathed in awe, clasping his dragon pendant. “Now I remember! I heard stories about this place. This is the heart of the Dragonway. The first temple that had been lost for so long!”

But the magnificence of the temple fell second to the sight of Tiwaz on her knees, hugging an extremely large black panther. The panther looked up at the four, put a protective paw around the woman, and bared very long, very white teeth as he growled warningly. She looked back and half turned. “No, no, it is okay. They are my friends.” She paused and nodded. “Yes, even the big, ugly one. He’s a good magic user. No, I didn’t think it was possible either.”

Simpkins blinked, looking at Doom incredulously. “Wait. I’m the ugly one?” Doom couldn’t help but grin at the ogre who made a rude gesture in return.

She extricated herself from the panther’s embrace, but kept her hand on his shoulder. Her posture reflected a newfound peace. “This is Ky-Lar. He was searching for me for five years. We both suffered because our bond could not be cemented due to distance. Veridian brought him from the Southern Wildlands after we purified the temple of the remaining demon that poisoned it.” She looked down at the massive creature. “My people and his form bonds to complete each other. That is why I can shape-shift in the day now. All shape-shifters share the form of their intended bondmates. I am whole now.”

The ogre blinked in surprise. “That explains everything!” All eyes turned to the giant. “The madness of lycanthropy. Lycanthropes do not have anything to balance the magic that allows the change.” He offered a deep bow to Tiwaz and Ky-Lar. “Though that is something that can wait to become known. Gods know what idiots would do armed with that sort of information.”

“Thank you.” The genuine gratitude and lack of suspicion startled the ogre a moment before he smiled and bowed again to her in mute response.

Doom’s smile appeared strained. “I am glad for you, Ti.” He tried to remain cheerful, but his tone fell flat. Ky-Lar padded over to Doom, then jumped up to put his paws on the gromek’s shoulders, looking him in the eyes. Then without warning, he licked the gromek’s face.

Tiwaz giggled, a sound as foreign as it was wonderful to their ears. “I told you he wasn’t a demon, Ky-Lar. Of course he won’t taste like one.” She approached as the panther dropped to all fours again. She put her hand over her friend’s heart. “I don’t need you any less, Doom. I am just not broken anymore.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

Ky-Lar walked up to Tracker, the two sniffing the air. “Cat-Sister has Cat-Brother. Good.” The panther rubbed his cheek against the wolflen’s hand.

Gareth approached the mirror, raising a hand as if to touch the glass, but not able to bring himself to mar the perfect surface. “Oh, if only Father Bura’an could see this place!” He jumped back when his reflection faded and he saw the Bralden temple from the point of view of its temple’s mirror. Bura’an, standing with his back to the mirror, turned when those parishioners facing the altars reacted to the change in the mirror. The man’s eyes went wide as he reached out as Gareth had moments earlier.

Except when he reached out, the mirror moved like living mercury, reaching out to encase his hand and sucked him through. He stumbled into the room the group was in, staggering off balance. He struggled to catch himself but fell down the steps between two of the skulls and tumbled into the pool, disappearing underwater.

“Bura’an!” Tiwaz ran to the edge of the pool, about to reach into the water. A hand the size of her head emerged and a young titan with Bura’an’s features surfaced. He climbed out of the pool, looking down at himself in bemusement. She squinted up at him. “Father Bura’an?”

He smiled down at her. “Yes, Daughter. It is me.”

She looked the nude giant up and down with a frown. “I am glad I did not touch the water if it makes you swell up like this.” The others stared at the woman for several heartbeats before they burst out laughing at the incongruous comment.

Bura’an chuckled as he straightened. “But you did something greater, and we thank you for it.”

Tiwaz’s eyes narrowed, glancing at Doom over her shoulder as he and the others joined her. The gromek put a calming hand on her back. “I do not understand, Father. Who is ‘we’ and what did we do?”

“'We’ are the gods of the Dragonway and I. You and your friends have healed the heart of our temples. The gods’ gratitude knows no bounds. It will take time for the ties to restore themselves, but soon, all of the temples will be returned to the glory they had known before the cataclysm that broke the land and us.” He looked at Tiwaz as Ky-Lar approached to sniff him suspiciously. “Have you discovered your name now, Daughter?”

She looked down, shoulders sagging. “No, Father. Not yet.” He put a finger under her chin, tilting her face up to meet her eyes with kindness.

“Have faith that you will. I do. And they do.” Everyone looked up at the sound of grinding and bells that vibrated through the rock. “Fear not, young ones. That is merely the doorbell at the training area.”

“Just the doorbell?” Simpkins asked incredulously, shaking his head as the others laughed. “Considering this place has been abandoned for gods only know how long,” he began, stopping briefly at Bura’an’s amused expression. “Yes, yes, I’m sure you can ask them how long it’s been. But don’t you think we should, I don’t know, see what is out there? We already had to deal with one demon.”

Bura’an considered, then glanced at his reflection in the mirror. “I should likely find something to cover myself with first. While Sulnar would likely adore the expressions on the faces of those I might greet nude, not everyone is so appreciative. Thankfully, she has been gracious enough to reassure the others through Aurora what has happened.”

“Father, I know where some clothes that would fit you are,” Tiwaz offered. “Ky-Lar and I can show you. They can go see who is here.” Doom and Tracker traded quizzical looks, surprised at the change in the woman’s temperament, but not wanting to push her. They turned to follow Simpkins and Gareth without a word.