I may have made a mistake!

Sooooo. I was reading through my notes and I discovered a half chapter I meant to use in book 1. It should have taken place on the road to Whiteford. It is a conversation where Lilly describes her dragon understanding of magic and tells Gersius about a dream world. I am going to post it here in it's raw unedited format.  Nearly all of what Lilly talks about here is going to be important later in the books. 

I would love to know if you think I need to find a way to put this back in. I suppose I could edit it into an early chapter and then tell people I made the change so they could read it. I can't believe I left this out!

“So tell me about this magic you dragons can do,” he said to pass the time as they walked.

Lilly tossed her head. “What about it?”

“Is it the same as weaving?”  

Lilly chewed her lip a moment. “It can be, I suppose I can tell you this. Magic is just a source of power. It is the same no matter how you choose to see it. All that changes is how you access it. You can weave it, you can pray for it, or you can simply call on it.”

“How do you call on it?” he asked.

“That is a part of your solus,” she said. “A dragons solus is magical in nature and we have a strong connection to it. We find it very easy to simply draw on the magic, but we can’t channel the magic in the aether unless we use a weave.”

“This is confusing,” he said.

“Let me try to be more clear,” she replied with a glance.  

“I told you there were magical metals, these act as a source of the power. Another source in the aether, a sort of higher place of being where the magic flows like the wind through everything. Even now though you can’t see it, you are awash in it. Weavers can tap into this power though gesture and voice. The aether will vibrate at the frequency of the voice and begin to collect. This is what they are weaving to create the desired affect.”

“I think I understand,” he said.

“You use tones as well, it’s why you chant in order to channel power. For you though your God is your source and he or she sets the rules on how you can call on that power. Your chants are more elaborate and musical because that is what your divine wants.”

Gersius nodded beginning to understand.  

“Dragons can simply will the power to do what they want, but in order to do so they must have a strong source nearby. A pile of gold or silver they can rapidly consume to power the spell. If a dragons wants they can use a weave and tap the aether, but we find it much easier to simply will a spell into being. Of course it is possible to combine them both.”

“Combine them?” he asked.

Lilly nodded. “I could start a weave and while drawing on the aether I could also draw on my coins to make a much more powerful spell.”

“So your drawing on more than one source for the same spell.”

“Exactly,” Lilly said.  

“And humans can’t do this?”  he asked.

Lilly tossed her head. “I don’t know. There is something about you humans that feels magical as  well. I have noticed it more since I have been close to you. There is a faint light to your kind. Something my mother never said anything about.”

“Maybe your sensing our coins,” he said.

Lilly shook her head. “I can tell you the contents of a chest by how it feels. I could tell you if it contained, gold, silver, or something else just by how the power coming out of it felt. You humans feel different. You have a glow that is strange.”

“I do have a connection to the divine, maybe your sensing that,” he suggested.

“Maybe,” Lilly conceded. “But even if you had a magical nature, it certainly isn’t strong enough to allow you draw on the metals.”

Gersius shrugged. “Can you show me a spell?”

Lilly’s eyes went wide. “You want me to waste gold!”

“I didn’t say use up all your coins. Just do a weave, any weave.”

Lilly’s chewed her lower lip as she looked down.  

“I suppose I could do a small weave.”

“Just something simple,” Gersius said.

Lilly stopped in the road. She closed her eyes and stretched out one hand. She made a sweet tone as she danced a slight pattern with a single finger.  She then leaned over and whispered into the weave. A light shot out and raced away.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Just wait,” she replied.

From off in the distance he suddenly heard her voice call out. “Stop wasting time and get me to Calathen.”

“You made your voice travel to there?” he said pointing into the nearby trees.

“It’s a simple weave, anyone can do it,” she replied.

“I can’t,” he said.  

“You could if you wanted to learn.”

He shook his head. “I have my faith, that is power enough for me.”

“Why limit yourself?” Lilly asked as they started to walk again.

“I would feel I was saying that Astikars blessings were not enough for me. My heart will not accept such a belief.”

Lilly laughed and he looked over at her.

“What is so funny?”

“You,” she said with a smile. “Your faith is so important to you. You live every moment of your life by it. What harm is there in learning a new skill? It’s not like your trying to replace your Gods power, you simply becoming more educated.”

Gersius was silent a moment. “I suppose if you look at it that way you are right.”

“Or course I’m right.”

He laughed himself now at her bold declaration.  

“So tell me, do you know many more weaves?”

She bobbed her head slightly. “I suppose I know very few. I never really tried to learn. I know what my mother insisted I learn.”

“And you never bartered for more?” he teased.

She shot him a narrow eyed glance.  

“No,” she said plainly.  

“You said females were often interested in knowledge, you don’t share that desire?”

She was quiet a moment. “I am very young by dragon years. I suppose I always felt there would be plenty of time to learn.”

“You said you were over five hundred?”

She nodded again. “I am just over fivehundred.”

“That seems very old to me,” he said.

She smiled. “This is part of why we dragons don’t see you humans as worth bothering with. Your lives are so short. What can you do with so short a life?”

“Says the dragon who sleeps a hundred years in a cave,” Gersius replied. “While we build cities and bridges and roads.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she said.

“I mean you have such long lifespans and all you do with them is sleep and eat. What could a dragon build if it wanted to? What could you achieve with your long years?”

Lilly was quiet a good long time as her face contorted in concentration.

“I see your point,” she finally said. “But we dragons have no use for such things.”

` “I suppose you don’t,” he agreed. “You never really meet for any purpose other than mating.”

“My mother said dragons used to meet, she said the world changed and it stopped.”

“I wonder what changed,” Gersius said.

Lilly thought back to her days with her mother.  

“I don’t remember her ever telling me. I only remember her saying once that somebody was going to have to put it right.”

“I wonder how many dragons there are,” Gersius said.  “I know of only you, your mother, and the red.”

“The red will be dead soon,” Lilly growled.

“I am sorry I didn’t mean to bring up a painful memory,” he quickly said.

Lilly shook her head. “It’s alright. To answer your question my mother said that dragons were rare. I know there are more of them, but not many more.”

“How do you know? You told me you had never met any before.”

Lilly wrapped her arms over her chest and looked around.  

“This is another dragon secret isn’t it?”

She sighed. “Yes, it’s silly. It isn’t like I was ever told not to tell humans.”

“Keep your secret if you must, but I promise I will never share any you wish to tell me,” he said.

Lilly sighed again. “Alright. Dragons can dream walk.”

“I have no idea what that means,” he said.

She shook her head again. “It means when we sleep we can enter another world, a sort of dream world. This is part of why we can sleep so long. In this world we can feel the presence of other dragons. We can travel across the landscape and see them in our dreams.”

“What do you see?” he asked.

“We mostly see other sleeping dragons. Who are themselves wandering other places.”

“What purpose does such a power hold?” he asked.

Lilly blushed a little and looked away.

“We use it to find mates.”

He laughed a little and hid a smile under his hand.

“Now your laughing at me again!”  

“I am laughing at how embarrassed you are to tell me that.”

She tightened her arms over her chest and scowled.

“Lilly, there is nothing wrong with that. You have no reason to be embarrassed to tell me such things.”

She glanced over at him and her face softened. “I know your right, but it feels strange talking about it with you.”

He shrugged. “I find talking to you fascinating.”

“You do?”  

“Of course, you are a wealth of knowledge and you have a perspective on the world and everything in it that is unique. I love hearing what you think about things, or how you feel about them.”

A small smile crept over her lips.  

“I like to tell you things,” she said.  

“Then tell me how do you locate a dragon if you see them in the dream?”

“The dreamworld mirrors our own. So you enter it where you went to sleep. Then you can feel the presence of the dragon and you can travel the distance in the dream. So you can see where the dragon actually is. Then when you wake up you can go to them.”

“Can two sleeping dragons meet in the dream world?” he asked.

Lilly stopped in the road and her brows creased.

“I have no idea. I don’t see why not.”

“Your mother never said anything about it?”

“No, she never did,” Lilly replied her eyes lost in thought. “I wonder if I could go to her.”

“Your mother you mean?”  

“Yes, Maybe I could find her in the dream, I could talk to her.”

“Maybe,” Gersius said. “What would you tell her?”

“That she needed to come eat you to free me from the bind,” Lilly said.

Gersius snapped his eyes over to her and she tried her hardest to keep a straight face. She started to giggle and had to look away.

“That was not funny,” he said.

“The look on your face!” she laughed.

He glanced at her again and resumed walking while she giggled beside him.

“You will be free from the bind soon enough,” he said. “A year must be nothing to you.”

“Like a day is to you I suppose,” Lilly agreed. “Why did you agree to such a short bind?”

“I wanted your help. I wanted to show you that I meant you no harm and give you hope.”

“Because I wanted to die.”

He nodded. “I felt such a terrible sorrow for you. I still do.”

She was quiet a minute as his words echoed in her ears.

“Is something wrong?”

Lilly looked away. “Gersius, ever since you bound me I have been feeling things I have no words for. You speak of things like sorrow and grief. I know those things exist but I had no understanding of them. Not until that day.”

“You lived alone in isolation. You have no use for such things.”

She looked down her eyes searching the ground.  

“It’s more than that. I feel things over the bind. Things from you. I have no idea what they are. They are so strange to me and I get frightened sometimes when I feel them.”

“I feel you sometimes,” he admitted.

“You do?”

He nodded his head. “When ever your having a strong emotion I feel an echo of it over the bind.”

Lilly sighed. “You say you can feel a strong emotion. I feel from you is a pressure, or twisting inside. I have no idea what it is. It’s a feeling or emotion I have never known before.”