“Yes, that’s you.”Tor was never more convinced of anything. How could he be when she looked so incredibly familiar? So familiar that he was positive if he called out to her, she would look his way.
As if in answer to his thought, someonedidcall out to her.
“I can see you, you know,” came a voice. “And I can help you.”
“Oh, wow,” Raven murmured when they spied a tiny dark blue dragon sitting on a rock. “That’s you, Tor!”
“It is me,”he agreed.“Though I have no memory of ever coming down here at that age.”He shook his head.“It’s far too dangerous for dragons, let alone one so young.”
“Yet there you are,” she said softly. Her tiny dragon didn’t linger in the shadows long but drifted his way. “And so calm, which I welcomed. Needed somehow.”
“That’s how I deal with spirits that have passed on,”he revealed.“Once I grew older and understood my gift better, that is.”He shook his head.“Never as a fledgling, though.”
While he knew it was to be expected, Tor was surprised by how drawn he was to her tiny dragon. How oddly relieved he was to see her again.
“We can see your memory, too,” Dagr said.
“How is that possible,” Raven wondered, “if you can’t see us?”
“Because the memory’s taking place in Helheim,” Maya replied. “Before Raven was born.”
“Yet someplace else as well,” Dagr went on. “It’s misted in a unique darkness.”
“A mystical sort of darkness,” Maya said. “So it must be taking place between two worlds. Three actually because Earth, or Midgard, doesn’t produce whatever that is. It has to be another world.”
“A world we’re all witnessing.” Raven marveled once more at their surroundings before her gaze returned to her tiny dragon. “Despite me being the one who inevitably passed through it before being born.”
“You mean born into it,”Tor corrected.“Before you were born into Midgard.”
“I can help you,” tiny Tor repeated to Raven. He tilted his head. “Because you need help, yes?”
“Tá, cabhair ag teastáil uaithi,” came a masculine voice from the darkness before he spoke English with a distinct Irish lilt. “Yes, she needs help.”
“I know that voice,” Raven said, baffled. “That’shim....”
Disliking her familiarity with the stranger, Tor couldn’t help but bristle.“Him, who?”
“The dark wizard.” Even though they had moved closer, little could be seen of the man save an outline of a hooded robe. “He comes to me in dreams. Tries to remind me.” Her voice dropped an octave. “Didremind me.”
“Of what?”he asked.
She went to respond but got distracted by the memory.
“How can I help her?” tiny Tor asked the dark wizard, seemingly unfazed by his presence. “And who are you? Who is she?”
“She is your future.” His diamond chip eyes glittered in the darkness. “She is everyone’s future.”
Tor cocked his head. “How, though?”
“Why not let her tell you?” the wizard replied.
“He’s gesturing that I go to you,” Raven said, emotion in her voice. “Telling me now’s the time.”
“Time for what?”Tor asked.
“You know full well what.”
“The prophecy,”he realized,remembered, as tiny Raven slowly emerged from the shadows.“You’re about to share it with me.”He looked her way.“I always knew you had but forgot when. Like a memory that faded over time.”He shook his head. “How could I have forgotten this moment? Forgotten how drawn I was to you?”
