When she awoke from her dream of a crystal Elder dragon, Aeris believed her destiny would take root in slaying a monster. But she'd been meant for something else entirely, something that would pass her by unnoticed.

An early friend of Alba’s, she dreamed of a Crystal elder dragon, and believed it to be Kralkatorrik. After great examination of her dream, she stepped out into the world with the idea that her Wyld Hunt would be to slay Kralk. She joined the Priory and dove into studying the brand, trying to find weaknesses to exploit to take down the dragon.

She joined the forces at Thunderhead Keep, believing that she would play a hand in ending the war. But they failed. Kralkatorrik escaped. Aurene was dead, Alba was badly wounded, the world felt dark and doomed. Struggling to understand what piece she must be missing, Aeris ventured to the Crystal Desert to try to work the problem out so that she could kill Kralkatorrik at last.

And then in the Highlands she found what remained of the proof of Vlast’s death, and it hit her that this was it. Her Wyld Hunt was this, the crystalline remains of a dragon, dead in the desert. Her dream had been misinterpreted, her vision of “a crystal dragon” misbelieved to have been Kralk–but it wasn’t Kralkatorrik she saw herself approach in her dream, it was this dragon that she’d been meant to find, meant to appear as his champion years ago, and she’d failed him. She’d never shown up and he’d died alone, and she’d never get to meet him and fulfill her destiny. She’d missed it without realizing it. She understood it all intuitively as everything fell into place around her; the world made sense, but it wasn’t through virtue of her solving anything.

Afterwards she felt listless. Empty. All of her life and time and research and effort had been devoted to Kralkatorrik and killing him. What did she have if that wasn’t it; and more importantly what did she have if Vlast was dead and she’d failed. What happens to you when you fail your Wyld Hunt, your reason for being born?

It felt for some time like she’d ceased to exist.

She learned of Kralkatorrik’s death weeks after it happened, and felt hollow at the thought. She wasn’t even there for it. It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. Alba had done it again. She couldn’t even be very bitter about it. It was a good thing.

Afterwards, she spent some time depressed and lifeless, mourning her failed dream and loss of purpose, until Tryllwenn found her in the desert and got her back on her feet.