Redrik

Dust was careful in their work on the eastern part of the island. Ash, grandson of the clan founders though born and raised in Oakrest, assisted them in uncovering remains and putting the dead to rest. Another hatched in Oakrest, Fallowpen, used their Stonetouched ability to read the past and piece together the fate that had befallen Vespers' former clan.

Fearing possession, only Dust's Hunter siblings and the clan's leaders were permitted access to the site. Vespers only came once and left swiftly, overcome with grief as long buried memories were unearthed along with the ruins. Shadowstar felt sympathy for his fellow leader but focused instead on the potential for this new territory and the resources it could provide for the clan, already mentally drawing up plans for its use. Eztli offered condolences and aid, mostly concerned that the veil be repaired lest another incident like the Barrier Breach occur.

Despite their efforts in locating and releasing the trapped spirits of the dead, there was one none of the Hunters could find - that of Vespers' treacherous former mate. The oneiromancers had their own theories, and Revas and Annabel teamed up to hunt the dreamscape for what had blinded and silenced Cecil, the horror that had led him to encourage the clan to evacuate. Though they had no name for him, they thought they knew his identity.

Dust and the others did their best to keep the curious away from the eastern part of the island until it was declared safe, but a curious guardian hatchling crept through tunnels too small for adult dragons and discovered an amulet buried in rubble. Descended from the clan's founders and from one of Oakrest's most prominent families of Hunters, even at such a young age, Redrik knew better than to pick it up...and yet he knew that the amulet was his charge. He did what he could to conceal the amulet from his family, knowing that they would take it away from him, and he lied that his charge was his brother Imith, much as his mother Cessa had done when she had falsely claimed a rare tome as her charge. Redrik's hidden amulet whispered to him, saying that as descendants of the clan's founders, he and his brother ought to be ruling the clan instead of the coatl usurpers, echoing conversations of his ambitious parents that he had overheard.

As careful as the young guardian was, however, he couldn't hide his charge forever. Vespers felt the faintest trace of magic once as familiar to him as his own, and at long last he traced its source to Redrik, arriving at the same time as Annabel, who finally realized the specter she hunted across the dreamscape was rooted in her brother James' son. Though Redrik pleaded and begged, Vespers and all of the clan's Hunters gathered to exorcise his former mate's spirit from the amulet that had served as its physical anchor in all the worlds. Revas and Annabel kept careful watch on the other side to ensure that the spirit couldn't escape into the dreamscape, while their spirit allies stood poised to pounce should it enter the spirit realm. Their efforts blasted the malevolent being into oblivion, scattering its spiritual remains like ashes on the wind across the material and spirit realms. Emrys meanwhile kept watch over his great-grandchild, shielding him from the magical backlash as the guardian's charge was assaulted and altered until it was simply an unmagical necklace.

In the pools, the pearlcatcher Blain started when his fellow pooltender Cecil suddenly opened his blind eyes and spoke his first words since his warning to evacuate. "It is well."