Chapter 139 Something New
ARYA
Bardon did what I’d asked. He took it in without immediately reaching for a framework and the academic instinct to categorize and analyze before the thing being categorized had finished being described. He sat across from me in his workroom, hands folded, eyes attentive, and he listened to both dreams in full.
When I finished, he was quiet for a moment.
“Your grandmother,” he said. “She was significantly powerful?”
“You knew her. Or knew of her.”
“I knew of her. The reports from people who met her described someone with a land connection that was—” He paused. “More extensive than typical for Moonbornes of her generation. She’d spent decades in hiding, in close contact with the land of various territories she moved through. The connection had deepened.” He looked at me. “Which was something the amulet was partly suppressing in you. Not just your wolf. Your land connection as well.”
“She was protecting me from being found.”
“She was protecting you from being fully yourself until you were ready.” He tilted his head. “What did she say? Exactly.”
“Not yet.” I looked at the fire. “I don’t know what she meant.”
“I think you do,” he said.
I looked at him.
“You’re pregnant. Your power is intensifying. The land connection is deepening.” He met my eyes. “There’s something coming that you’re not ready for yet. Maybe not a threat but development rather. Something your grandmother is aware of and is telling you not to reach for before its time.”
“She’s not actually communicating with me,” I said. “These are dreams.”
“Are they only dreams?”
I thought about the ward resonance and the land connection that felt like a relationship, or a deep conversation with someone who knew you almost better than you knew yourself.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t know what they are.”
“Neither do I.” He said it without apology. “Which is why I’m not reaching for a framework yet.” He paused. “What I can tell you is that the historical accounts Luca found are real and documented and the range of outcomes is real. The question is what distinguishes the experiences that remained useful from the ones that became consuming.”
“Boundary maintenance,” I said.
“Partly. But there’s something more specific in the accounts.” He pulled a book from his shelf. One of the ones I recognized from Luca’s description. “The Moonbornes who remained functional didn’t try to close the experiences down. They also didn’t try to open them further. They—” He found the relevant passage. “They treated the contact as they would treat any information source. Real, potentially valuable, but filtered through their own present-moment awareness.” He looked up. “Not passive recipients. Active interpreters.”
“I’m not just receiving whatever comes through. I’m reading it through my own understanding of who I am.”
“Exactly. Your grandmother said ‘not yet.’ That’s a clear communication from someone who knows you. Your present-moment understanding of that, and your active interpretation is ‘there’s something coming and I’m not ready.’ That’s different from just hearing her voice and being lost in it.”
I thought about this. “The Moonborne who couldn’t distinguish. What was different about her situation?”
“She was isolated,” Bardon said. “Her pack had fragmented. The people who should have been present in her daily life were largely absent. When the voices of the past began to become more present—” He closed the book. “There was nothing competing for her attention on this side.”
I looked at Luca, who was sitting in the chair in the corner. Every present but deliberately not dominating the conversation.
“She had no anchor,” I said.
“She had insufficient anchor,” Bardon nodded. “It sounds the same but it’s not quite. The anchor exists in the present. The connections, the work, the people.” He looked at me. “You have—” He gestured around. “A significant amount in the present.”
“Yes,” I said.
“Then we monitor. You tell me when the dreams occur. You describe them fully before you analyze them. Description first, so the details don’t get shaped by your interpretation.” He picked up his tablet. “And you tell me immediately if the boundary feels uncertain. If you’re not sure while it’s happening whether it’s a dream.”
“Has that happened yet?” Luca asked from the corner.
“No,” I said honestly. “Both times I knew I was dreaming.”
“Then we’re in the early stages of something that may develop significantly or may not.” Bardon set down the tablet. “And you’re approaching it with full awareness and proper anchoring. That’s the best possible position to be in.”
I exhaled slowly. “Okay.”
“One more thing,” he said. “About the pregnancy and the baby’s magical signature.” He paused. “I want to check something in the next week or so. The land connection and the developing signature. I want to see if there’s an interaction.”
“You think the baby is contributing to the intensification.”
“I think it’s possible. Two Moonborne-adjacent magical presences sharing a physical connection while one of them is developing the land connection for the first time.” He looked at me. “It’s unprecedented but the logic is there.”
“Everything with me is unprecedented.”
“Yes.” He said it with something that was clearly affection despite his usual professional register. “You’re going to make my career.”
“You’re eight hundred years older than Luca,” I said. “You have an established career.”
“And it was far less interesting before you arrived.” He stood, signaling the end of the formal consultation. “Sleep well. Tell me the next one when it happens.”