Chapter 244

• [Carnelia]
• I never expected that the name that would spring from her lips would be the same as the name I first encountered at the beginning of this adventure, in the pages of a children’s book read to me by my mate before I even understood what a mate really was. Even before I knew what it was to be a dragon, that name had importance to me. That book was the first book I ever read. My name, Carnelia, was picked from its pages.
• Oaestr is the mother of all dragonkind. The first of us. Surely she isn’t that Oaestr. I’m not even sure that she was ever anything more than a fantasy story told to hatchlings to help them make sense of the confusing world we live in.