Very shortly after they leave the boat, it is made known to Isibel that there is a unicorn waiting for her nearby. 'Nearby' being relative, of course, since unicorns and population centers don't mix well.

Isibel goes looking for the unicorn, puzzled. She isn't close personal friends with any unicorns, though of course she's one of the people in Silverbranch who can interact with them if they come by and require an intermediary.

"...I'm Isibel," says Isibel softly. "To save the world - I don't understand."

"I don't know everything," he says, "but I know some things! Someone's trying to raise Elemental Darkness again like they did when Mom was younger and it's not going to turn out so good this time, so you have to bond with a dragon and find them and stop them."

"There are - several Elfmages, more experienced than I, who would of course not want the Elemental Darkness raised..." Isibel says. There's really no point in arguing with the unicorn, he's just a messenger, but she can't exactly address the Wild Magic personally. "I don't understand what would make it essential for me in particular to participate - surely there are others - who have the bond already, who want it -"

"You are a lot like Harrier," snorts the unicorn. "He didn't want to be the chosen champion of the Light either. Or bond with a dragon. But he did, and look how much better everything is now! I'm going to have to follow you around for months, I bet. Oh," he adds, "I'm Liselen. By the way."

"You - you don't understand. I would like nothing better than to be an Elfmage; if the world needs saving I would be willing to devote my life to saving it - I don't think I can - I think if anyone, even a dragon who I'd come to love as life itself, could - spy on my thoughts like that - I don't think I'd survive it, I'd go madder than Bisochim the Deceived, I'd be in no condition to save the world," pleads Isibel. "I can't. I'll as good as die before I can accomplish anything."

"...I didn't know that," says Liselen. "I don't know what to do about that. Maybe the Wild Magic will find a way," he says hopefully. "It usually does. But will y—I mean, it would be good if you tried. Or thought about it. Or thought about it and then tried."

"So there's - there's time," murmurs Isibel. "I have a while, I can -" She shakes her head. "Put my affairs in order. Talk to the Elfmages, perhaps, see if they have counsel for me. I don't have to go back to the boat and ask that it sail right now."

"...You found a dragon over the sea - that makes sense," says Liselen. "I don't have a deadline or anything, but I get the definite impression that ten years would be too late. A season or two would be fine."

Isibel nods slowly. "It would be good to know what else I must do besides bond with the dragon I found," she murmurs.

"That's not part of what I know," says Liselen, shaking his head. "But I guess you'll find out when you need to."

Isibel swallows. "Perhaps if you know more," she says, "you could tell me, and I could write it down." She produces her notebook, which has about three pages left.

"I know you have to bond with a dragon to save the world," he says, "and I guess it has to be the one you found, and it had better be sometime this year, and I'm supposed to stay with you until you decide you're definitely going to do it but I don't have to follow you all the way across the ocean or anything, which is good because I get really seasick, it's awful."

"That name sounds familiar," says Liselen, and visibly bites back further utterances.

"She used to be a Unicorn Knight," Isibel says, not sure what else would do it.

"Oh!" he says. "Yeah, now I remember. She was Mom's cousin's partner for a while."

"I can meet you here again after I've spoken with her," Isibel says.

"Okay!" says Liselen.

Isibel goes looking for Magania, quiet and withdrawn.

"I See you, Isibel," says Magania. "Anything you may wish to tell of what passed between you and Kareta's son would make good hearing."

"I am supposed to Bond with a dragon," Isibel says softly, in no condition to weave layers of indirection, "and save the world. It's possible I'll survive this physically, but I hold little hope for the state of my soul. I do not even know if I will hold together well enough under such scrutiny to save the world in the first place."

"...I have no wisdom to offer you," says Magania.

Isibel nods. "I thought perhaps I could accompany you to speak to the dragons. And their Bondmates. They may have wisdom to offer me from their own experiences."

"Of course," says Magania.

"Hi again!" he says. "I mean, um, I See you!"

"I See you," murmurs Isibel. "Magania is willing that I accompany her to speak to the other dragons."

"I guess that's good," says Liselen. "I guess I'll just... follow you. At a distance."

Isibel nods. "I do not know when she plans to leave. I will wait with her."

"Yep," says Liselen. "Um... good luck."

And then they travel to Karahelanderialigor, home of the dragons.

Isibel tags along while Magania introduces the situation, as it will be easier to explain exactly what she has to do once the dragons are alerted to the existence of her future Bondmate.

"His Bondmate once remarked that he would be quite amenable," murmurs Isibel.

"There is," Isibel says, "another matter, on which I would be most grateful to hear counsel from you, or from your Bondmates, if there is any to be had."

"Speak," says Saravasse.

"A unicorn, Liselen, told me when our expedition returned from the island that the Wild Magic says that the world is again in danger of Dark incursion and that I must avert it, and that this will involve my Bonding with a dragon." She swallows. "The island dragon and I can Bond. I - avoided his company as soon as I realized, having decided years ago that I could not, not for love or power, tolerate having my mind read. If there is any way, any at all, to mitigate this problem - I would hear it."

"I don't think I can," whispers Isibel. "I think I'll shrivel up inside and that I won't be able to do anything."

Ancaladar bows his head.

"I See you," Isibel sobs, and then she falls to her knees and buries her face in her hands and bursts into open tears.

He gets down on her level and wraps his arms around her and hugs her gently, his wings arched around them like a tent, murmuring something in his own language.

"I don't care about the world," he says softly. "I care about you. If this is how you feel about this thing, then do not do it."

"I care about the world. So many people could die. They may have already started dying because I waited to learn to concentrate on things, but I couldn't help that, I don't think I'll be able to work otherwise, whatever work I must do. I might die anyway, if I do nothing. There's no helping it." She doesn't hyperfocus for these sentences; she pushes them out between sobs and miserable sniffling inhalations.

The demon hugs her some more.

"I have to," Isibel says in a small voice. "I can't consign so many people to suffer and die just because I will be unhappy."

"You can," he murmurs. "People do that. Even people who are not demons."

"Not me," says Isibel. "I can't."

She looks up and meets his eyes. "I will also be unhappy if darkness takes the world," she murmurs, not addressing the first statement. She doesn't know what to do with that. She can't process. She can never process again; she's going to have to make do with some combination of instinct and status quo and Bondmate opinion, and what she has written down. There is not going to be another chance to write herself into books and read her thoughts in plain words. Not with someone watching.

"If you are sure," he says, "I will take you to my love."

He scoops her into his arms and stands, stretching his wings.

"I See you," Isibel says softly.

It's not hard, on a surface level, to just look. She knows what it means, but she's already made her decision about that, and now she can just - stare. They're compelling eyes, they draw her gaze, she feels a bit like someone has dropped her off a cliff and she might wish she could fly or that the cliff hadn't been there but it's not hard to fall.

Isibel hugs the demon, tightly, tightly, eyes closed. Usually a dragon teaches their Bondmate elfmagery from where it's hidden under the exchange the elves' ancestors made, but there are other Elfmages, she can go back to the Elven Lands, she can learn from them, she can do whatever it is she has to do, but even if the dragon sleeps a thousand years there will still be the demon and that is not how he works, is it? It scarcely matters if it's one of them or both, the problem isn't how many eyes but that things never meant to be exposed are visible at all.

"I sleep, too," the demon murmurs. "I sleep for days - I slept for a moonturn once. I'll do it as much as I can, my love." And he kisses her forehead, the way he'd kiss the dragon's nose, lightly and lovingly.

When her attention returns, her Bondmates are bewildered but relieved. Feeling her focus like that is deeply strange, but at least it doesn't hurt. It's possible not to hurt. That's a start.

She can't do it for more than an hour and that only when she's focused on something interesting or at least complicated. Magic will probably qualify. She's loved magic all her life. She'll do her best to recover her equanimity, here with them, while the Bond settles - she'll go back to Elven Lands; the boat will be making several trips and she can simply take the next one - she'll find the same teacher who taught her to focus - she'll work on magic. She'll try to figure out what in the world she's supposed to do with it.

Isibel hugs him as hard as she can, which isn't very hard really. He should be invisible when he sleeps, perhaps, or he could disguise himself as something other than a demon - aren't they supposed to be able to do that? - and accompany them. She'll be awake, soon enough she'll be a competent Elfmage, a Sarion, and then she'll need to go - wherever she needs to go to stop the darkness, and not even elfmagery will let her fly without someone to carry her. (This may be a flaw in the sleeping plan, at least if there is any intention of implementing it before the danger is past.)

The dragons know what he is; perhaps they'll help. Or Magania. Or a box, if he wouldn't mind a box, or - she can't think, she's already generated more thoughts than she expected to, and hyperfocus is only good for tasks, not for problem-solving, she can't think anymore, she presses her face to his shoulder and sobs.

She nods minutely. Will he carry her - she doesn't think she can walk very well, right now, ribbons or no ribbons -

He scoops her up and kisses her forehead again.

Isibel closes her eyes. She needs to stop again, just for a minute, a minute will do - breathe, breathe, breathe -

When she notices the world again, they are in the air.

"My love, my love," the demon murmurs, kissing her forehead again.

"Oh, my love," the demon sighs, smiling a little. He loves her so much. He loved her even before; they both did.

It would imply that she ever stopped crying, to say that she burst into tears, but she sobs harder, and curls into a ball, and withdraws again into breathing-breathing-breathing without stopping to wonder if they'll fall out of the sky into the ocean.

She's sorry anyway. She didn't even quite decide to do it, just - lurched desperately towards the sliver of hope.

"I love you," she sighs. She shuts her eyes. Maybe she can sleep. Elves can sometimes sleep through the day.

The demon's arms are very warm and comfortable, suited for sleeping in.

And yet the Elven Lands are not infinitely far away. Most particularly on dragonback.

Isibel opens her eyes, when the demon sleeps and his magic dissipates. And she feels no thought-echoes. And she sobs in relief and gets to her feet, trembling.

Saravasse is still there, watching over her.

"I See you," murmurs Isibel.

"And I you," says the scarlet dragon. "Now what?"

Isibel barely even flinches. There's a world of difference between someone being verbally inquisitive and someone actually prying into her brain. "Now I go find my teacher again and learn Elfmagery," she says, "I suppose."

"Have fun," Saravasse says dryly.

"I don't much care if you ask me questions, now," Isibel says. "I'm all right while my beloveds sleep."

"Oh," says Liselen. "That's good, I guess. Um so anyway, the Wild Magic has a message for you, again! It says your magic and your Bonded's magic have to work together to stop whoever it is from calling up the Dark again. Which doesn't make much sense," he adds, "because isn't that the whole point of dragons already? I mean, here you are, doing magic, because of your Bonded."

"I have a co-Bondmate," explains Isibel. "If it were more specific, that would be more helpful."

"Elfspells are not always easy to describe without words designed for them. I may be able to receive instructions from my teacher about one that could be described as a blue light-flower that smells like blood," Isibel says. "I would hear of the other part of the message. If it was sent, it may be important to me, even if you don't understand."

"Um, okay," says Liselen. "But it was very unicorn, I don't think it'll make sense to you either. Unless you know what touching a clear well with your horn feels like. And I don't think you do."

"I don't," admits Isibel. "It is very puzzling indeed that something so specific to unicorns would be included in a message intended for me and my Bondmates."

"Yes, well, the message is getting sent by unicorn," says Liselen. "There's probably something I'm missing. I was probably supposed to interpret that part to mean something, like I did with the rest. Maybe it means everything will be fine after you and your co-Bonded do what you're supposed to," he says doubtfully. "But that sounds really redundant too, and I don't think the Wild Magic usually sends redundant messages. Especially not by unicorn."

"Perhaps I could help you translate if I knew more about what it feels like to touch a clear well with one's horn," Isibel says. "Though I do not know to what extent it would admit description."

"It feels like... it feels right," he says. "Good. Purifying water feels good too, but differently. When the water's already pure, it's like... I don't know." He swishes his tail. "It's just nice. Are those berries any good, can I have one?"

"Perhaps the pure water represents something," suggests Isibel. "I have not finished the berries to my satisfaction, but they will not harm you if you would like a taste now."

"Something that is - already pure, I suppose, or that might be expected to become impure but will not," Isibel speculates. "I am not familiar with whether it is likely to be a person, or a place, or an object..."

"I don't really know," says Liselen. "The idea is, by the time I really need to know it, I'm supposed to have figured it out somehow."

"Yes. Unless she had associations with more than one of them."

"There wasn't more than one of them that she liked," he says. "Oh, everything makes so much more sense now."

"The new sense that your message makes would be good hearing."

"Well, obviously it's supposed to tell me that he's really for sure not Tainted," he says, flicking his tail, "so I can vouch for him like Gramps did for Vestakia. Except less comfortably, because unless Tialle was way wrong about some stuff, he's still... um, you know... that other thing that makes unicorns twitchy."

"That is good to know," Isibel says. "...The part about him not being Tainted."

"Yep," says Liselen. "Uh-huh. Definitely."

"If there are other parts to the message that you have not related, I would help you with them if I can."

He shakes his head. "Nope. Now that I know what it means, 'your Bonded isn't Tainted' is definitely the last one."

"All right. He isn't Tainted. We must work together to defeat the threat. Thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome!" says Liselen. "Good luck! Will I distract you too much if I stay here while you do magic to this bush?"

"Not overmuch, no." Isibel does some more magic to the bush.

Liselen watches. There isn't very much to see, but he seems content anyway.

Eventually Isibel is done with her berries. She cuts a branch to bring back to her teacher, and picks a few to eat. "You're welcome to the remainder," she tells Liselen.

Isibel returns to her teacher, presents the branch, and goes back to learning other spells.

"...I don't know if I believe him," he says. "I am a Demon."

"He was very clear about it," Isibel says. "He said there was part of the message from the Wild Magic that he didn't understand, and -" And having a conversation out loud isn't helping very much, but she can focus on giving explanations, she's done that once before. Breathe, and - "- that it felt like dipping his horn into a clear well. He said it made sense after I told him that my co-bondmate was a demon. He asked if you were Tialle's demon, and I said you were, and he said that part of the message meant that you weren't Tainted, and he can vouch for you as Shalkan did for Vestakia, except less comfortably because you are not, for demonically unrelated reasons, fit unicorn company."

"He's right about that much," the demon sighs. "Oh, my love."

Isibel's not sure how unicorn senses reckon that kind of thing, but certainly if he was already in a condition to discomfit Tialle when they met he still is now. She sighs and hugs him tight.

"I love you so much," he says softly.

"I love you too," Isibel murmurs.

Maybe if he just - tries not to pay attention, tries very hard, tries not to think of anything at all except how much he loves her.

"But he did not say what?"

"No. Well, I'm sure he would have. The Wild Magic didn't tell him."

"A mystery," the demon sighs. "Well, let's find out, then."

"I don't know a spell to find whoever it is. My teacher thinks that if I could have delayed a season or two to Bond at all I can wait the extra moonturns to become proficient at Elfmagery and that this will give me a better chance of doing what I must when I do find the enemy."

"I think you need a better teacher," says the demon.

"I could look for another, but this one is willing to devote her time to me, and she is good at explaining the things she chooses to explain, and she might take offense and refuse to teach me more if I failed to find a better one."

"Then... I don't know," he sighs. "I'm sorry."

"I would like it, if you slept here," he says.

The demon curls up and holds her. All night. He spends the time practicing, to see how long he can go thinking about his love for her and nothing else.

Might she find him mid practice when she wakes in the morning?

She does, in fact!

That is nice. Snuggle-snuggle-sigh.

Oh, snuggles! He can snuggle without thinking. Just loving her, and touching her, and breathing the scent of her hair, and draping his wing over her like a leathery blanket. Just that.

Nicenicenicenice. If it were like this all the time - well, she still wouldn't have wanted to Bond, she wanted to accomplish things with her life - but if it were like this all the time it wouldn't have frightened her so much.

He notices 'nicenicenice', but he doesn't quite notice it all the way - he doesn't break out of focus, just wraps his arms around her and loves her some more, content in half-conscious sensual enjoyment of the fact that someone he loves is happy.

Mmmmm.

Snuggle snuggle snuggle love.

She wonders how long he can do this, now.

He is not doing it perfectly - he has thoughts, slow lazy things that dawdle across his mind, formless and wordless - but he manages it for a good while longer.

When he's lost his hold, Isibel sighs. "I'll go to my teacher," she says. "And concentrate on magic."

"I love you," he says, cuddling her a little more. "I'm sorry."