Page 18 of Thorulf
“Okay,” Jade said slowly. “Then where were we born?”
“I’m not sure.” Maya’s gaze returned to tiny Jade just before the memory faded and everything returned to normal. “All I know is it wasn’t Helheim.”
“Too bad.” Jade took the revelation in remarkable stride. “That was a pretty gorgeous world.” She grinned. “Looked like I was having fun in it.”
“It did,” Maya conceded, yet there was no missing the worry in her eyes when she glanced at Dagr. “What would happen if Jade kept evading Hel like that? Obviously, she was born, so your mother caught up with her eventually but still.”
“I have no idea.” He shook his head. “This is new territory for me. You’re the first dragons ever born of something like this. Born of the Forge.”
“Perhaps Loki knows,” Thorulf said, saddened by the memory vanishing. He had enjoyed seeing Jade like that again. Because he had before. He was sure of it.
Clearly following his thoughts, Jade’s eyes narrowed on him. “How could you have possibly seen me at that age? I wasn’t even born yet...not on Midgard anyway.”
“Seen you at what age?” Destiny began before she looked between the four of them and saw what no one else could. Where they had just been and what had happened. As it were, based on everything going on in the great hall, they had never left. No time had passed there. “Isn’t that interesting.” She filled Leviathan in telepathically before addressing Thorulf. “So, how do you think you saw Jade at that age? Perhaps in a dream?”
“I’m not sure.” He shook his head. “Recognizing her feels like it might be because of a dream...but not.”
He avoided eye contact with Jade mostly because he was still irritated with her kissing Vicar. More than that, frustrated with his dragon’s response to the danger she put herself in when she’d held a knife to his throat. She had no idea what Vicar was capable of. How unstable he really was. However impressive her skills with a blade, his brother could have ended her life in a split second. And nowadays, he would likely do it without a shred of remorse.
“I get the same feeling,” Jade added, agreeing with his explanation about their potential history together. “I think maybe the nightmare I had about meeting Thorulf for the first time was more than just a dream.”
What nightmare? She had dreamt about meeting him? When he felt a spike of anger in her mind she tried to keep from him, he finally put the pieces together.
“The purple dragon.” He frowned at Jade, troubled. “That’s when she killed you, isn’t it?”
When everyone looked between them in confusion, Jade finally revealed what had apparently happened in his lair.
“Anyway,” she said in conclusion, her expression hard to read. “Whoever that purple dragon was, she didn’t want me anywhere near Thorulf.” She didn’t so much as glance his way but remained focused on the others, including Vicar, who listened with a little too much interest. “And I’m positive Thorulf had no issues with what the purple dragon did to me.” Still ignoring him, she frowned and glanced up as though looking at the memory they’d just witnessed. “Oddly, he wasn’t that small when I met him, though.” She looked at Destiny. “You’d think if he remembered me at that size, I’d remember him at the same size. Especially considering we’re the same age.”
That revelation caught them both off guard.
“How do you know that?” Maya asked.
“I don’t know.” Jade shrugged but looked troubled. “I guess I just assumed. We look around the same age.”
“Because you are,” Destiny murmured, thinking about that. “Both born on the same day as the summer solstice, but not the same year.”
Jade cocked her head. “Why do you say that like it means something?”
“Because it does,” Leviathan revealed. “Not only was the solstice a big part of what ultimately brought Destiny and I together, but we Forged in Fire on the summer solstice.”
“And that means what exactly?” Jade prompted. “Because Thorulf wasn’t born of that event.”
“No,” Destiny conceded. “But he does have Celtic godliness in him and made contact with you early in life.”
Thorulf and Jade both looked at her in confusion when she hesitated.
“It just seems ironic and worth noting,” Destiny went on. “Mainly because a Celtic goddess and Guardian Witches played such a big part in the events surrounding the Forge.”
“And the summer solstice is a big deal for them,” Thorulf murmured, figuring out her implication. “A truly important day for Celtic pagans.”
“That’s right.” Destiny looked Jade’s way. “And though you were all born of the same event, you’re the only sister born on that day.”
“Interesting how that works.” Jade crossed her arms over her chest and considered it. “My sisters and I were all born of the Forge, so you would’ve thought we would have been born onto Earth as quadruplets at the same time.”
“If time passed the same on all worlds and in all dimensions,” Destiny replied. “The moment you passed through Helheim, time passed differently for all of you. It’s much like souls being reborn time and time again. Some spend more time in the afterlife, where others are reborn right away. It depends on a variety of factors.”
“So you’re saying Maya moved right along, but Trinity, Raven, and I got distracted?” Jade asked, a tad disbelieving before her gaze rose to the spire where her tiny dragon had just been frolicking. “Then again, I guess we just witnessed proof of that.”
“Yet my brother remembers her at the age you just witnessed,” Vicar said. “Which implies perhaps she didn’t linger on Helheim but crossed into Midgard without having been born into it first.”
“An interesting concept, is it not?” came an unfamiliar voice.
A voice, as it turned out, that had a profound impact on everyone in the great hall.