Call Of Dragons - Dragon Trail 28-3

That night, Elara sat alone in the armory. The three Celestial Keystones, now inert, sat on the table before her. But as she touched the first one, it pulsed—once—and projected a faint, flickering image: Valdris, alive, trapped but breathing, deep within the Gorge’s belly.

Twenty voices rose in jagged, imperfect harmony. The Matriarch Wyrm recoiled, its song fracturing. Elara sprinted across the crumbling platforms, leaped onto the creature’s back, and drove her blade into its crystal eye.

Valdris shuddered. A low, ancient voice echoed in Elara’s mind: “They came for my heart-flame, little one. Do not let them take it. If the Keystones fail… sever my spine. Let me die a drake, not a husk.” Call Of Dragons Dragon Trail 28-3

The explosion threw her ten yards. She landed hard, ribs cracked, but the Matriarch collapsed—and its death-cry triggered the third Keystone.

The ground trembled. A emerged from the central chasm—twice the size of the others, its crystal not on its head but replacing its left eye . It began to sing. That night, Elara sat alone in the armory

Elara looked up. Through the mists of the Gorge, she saw them: . Not ordinary drakes. These were shard-wyrms—twisted, serpentine creatures with crystalline growths bursting through their skulls. They didn’t roar. They screamed in harmonic frequencies that made reality splinter.

“Sing back,” she commanded her remaining mages. “The Hymn of Unbroken Stone. NOW.” Twenty voices rose in jagged, imperfect harmony

The melody wasn’t sound. It was memory . Every soldier who heard it froze, reliving their worst failure. Kaelen dropped the third Keystone and fell to his knees, weeping over a dead brother who never existed.

Elara dove through last, landing on cold stone in the real world. Behind her, the Dragon Trail 28-3 sigil on her gauntlet shattered into gray dust.

Two Keystones locked into place. Valdris’s breathing eased.