She wasn't sure where she was going or why, even what she needed to find. All she knew was that her eyes were open now, the last tendrils of the dream relinquishing their hold on her and retreating into the dark corners of the room. But they were still there.

'It runs in our blood, Meera,' her mother used to say often, so long ago. Prophetic dreams were their bloodline's core thread, connecting mother to daughter, and leading all back to the same place. Home.

But first, there were other stops, places that needed something. Or places she needed, herself.

Blankets pooled around her legs as she sat up, then hesitated. Lisha breathed quietly beside her, a perfect picture of peace with her long lashes resting on her cheeks and hair white from the moonlight spilling over the pillow like a river. Meera stopped herself before her fingers could brush a smooth cheek. She couldn't just leave Lisha without a word. She couldn't, but...

But the last couple of quests had taken a toll and when she'd returned from the last with one eye less and a number of new scars, Lisha had tried to persuade her never to accept a new one. And that wasn't an option.

'Why not?' Riphian's high, whispery voice slithered through her head. She closed her eyes, breathed in, and slipped from the bed, pretending she couldn't hear him, nor see the shadow standing near the door. She would not choose to become the first of her blood to fall to his taunts. It was their duty to the world to undo all that he'd done after the first of them had unleashed his chaos upon it and brought Time into existence. He might've been tethered and bound, unable to act, but listening to him changed that. It broke things that should not be broken.

'If not for me, you'd have never found Lisha,' he called after her, but she was already halfway down the hall, pulling a shawl about herself. He followed. 'She would have been lost forever. You said so.'

Meera cursed herself silently for letting herself get used to sleeping in a simple shift rather than half dressed. She couldn't get out the door soon enough. But it had been a year since the last time she'd dreamed prophetically, and Lisha's gentle coaxing had worn her down.

Riphian went on, despite her unresponsiveness. 'I guess we're going to pretend you haven't already gone astray once and seen it turn out well.' Her hands fumbled and she was slower in the effort to not wake Lisha, but at length she was laced into a travel-suited dress, gloves, and boots, pulling a well worn dusty-red hood over her head. A sigh rushed out of her at the sudden quieting of his voice.

It didn't matter, none of it did. She needed to go, because the sooner she did, the sooner she'd see her wife again. When she looked up, he was frowning, childish features furrowed, but mouth unmoving. He'd given up, for now at least.

As the heavy wood door shut behind her with the quietest click, Meera reminded herself that she wasn't making a mistake. The dream clung to her heavily, but she'd return just as she had every time before and life would go on. It might just be a longer trip than those before.

***

In the dark of the bedroom, a pair of the palest blue eyes opened, glowing with resolve. Since the last quest, she'd slept lightly, unwilling to miss the call of the next quest. Weeks came and went, months went on and nothing came. A season, then two, then three, and four. Here she waited still. A year had passed, her anticipation wavering as she wondered whether that terrible journey truly had been the last, ever.

But just as she'd known, it had indeed come again and she was to be left alone, as every time before, the curse of blood chipping away bit by bit the one person she held dearest in the world. All she could do was watch, and wait, tending an empty home just as she'd tended the dragon's lair for years, destined to be a child of waiting. She'd thought it was over when she was found and taken away to a happy life, yet still here she was left waiting every time.

Not anymore. This time she was ready. This time, she'd make certain herself that Meera would return unharmed.