"I'm Agent Kendall," one of the men introduced himself to Nathan as the demigod pulled his backpack from his car and pulled it on, then Angel Kendall gestured to the other agent. "This is Agent Smalls. We'll be escorting you to Endariv's lair. We were informed that you had a phoenix who would be accompanying us as well?"

"He's hiding," Nathan looked at the mountain as he closed the door to his car. "He left on the drive up. He'll only reveal himself if he believes Endariv will refuse to negotiate with me. He's nearby."

"Understood," Agent Kendall said. "Do you have the offering?"

"Hidden," Nathan said. "How long of a walk is it?"

"It takes around an hour and a half from here," the agent answered. "This is our base camp, where the enchanters do their work."

Nathan glanced at the cluster of ten buildings, then to the small path leading onto the mountain. He wanted to get it over with and return to his son, who was safe at home, being watched by both Keith and Samantha. His cousin, too. It had taken Nathan a lot of effort to part with Cyrus, but it was for the best. His son was hundreds of miles away, making it less likely for him to be injured or killed if Endariv went on a rampage for some reason.

The demigod frowned a little. Ichtvar seemed quite confident Nathan would succeed without the phoenix's intervention, but refused to elaborate on why. It wasn't the sort of confidence where Ichtvar was bluffing, but the sort where the creature was attempting to hide it. The kind which told Nathan it was true.

"Let's go," Nathan began walking.

The agents quickly followed.

"Normally," Agent Kendall said. "We'll see him poking his head out of his cave once it's in sight. He watches as we ascend. You won't be able to see his den from here, but you'll be able to spot it a few times as we pass through the woods. He waits for us to reach his cave, then inspects our offerings. He-"

"Is coming towards us," Nathan said flatly as he stopped walking, the agents stopping in confusion. "Quite quickly."

The demigod frowned as he noticed that. With his enhanced sight from his awakening and being a demigod, he was able to spot the dragon sooner, the small speck turning into a larger speck. By his estimates, the dragon was was over three hundred feet in height and at twice that more in length, when including the tail. It had dark red scales and a pair of crimson horns atop its head, its golden eyes fixed on the demigod.

"Fuck," he muttered. "It's moving too fast."

He pulled off his backpack, threw it to Agent Smalls, then held out his hands and shoved the agents to the side with force magic, only to be pinned to the ground a moment later by the dragon's front right claws.

"FATHER!" The dragon wailed, its voice booming through the air. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

As Nathan attempted to figure out how in the hell the dragon could mistake him for a demigod who died fourteen or fifteen centuries prior, the dragon picked him up and held him against its chest.

"Everyone told me you were dead, but I knew that couldn't be true," the dragon cried, making Nathan wonder if it was okay in the head. "Nothing could kill you! Not even that horrid witch Morgana! The horrid, evil demigod who tried to take over Earth! Before I could do anything, you'd already destroyed her magics and killed her!"

The dragon rambled, talking about its search for him and how everyone insisted he was dead when he really wasn't. It asked Nathan several times where he'd been and what he'd been up to, but never gave the demigod a chance to answer.

This went on for nearly an hour, and by the time the dragon actually allowed Nathan a chance to speak, the demigod was confused beyond belief. Here was the oldest dragon on Earth, the most powerful creature living on Earth, something which even Master Torzin feared the power of, and it seemed like a little kid who'd just reunited with his father after being separated a few days.

"Is everything alright?" Endariv asked Nathan, pulling the demigod away. "You aren't normally so silent."

"I'm just trying to figure out how the fuck you mistook me for a wizard who died more than a thousand years ago."

The dragon stared at Nathan, frowning a little.

"Your magic is weaker," the dragon said. "Weaker than even when I hatched, Father. You don't remember me? Did you hit your head or something?"

"I was born eighteen years ago," Nathan said. "As of this past February. I'm not fourteen hundred or so. Trust me. I'd know if I was that old. I'd probably be an ancestor to everyone on this planet."

"Hm," the dragon said. "Oh. I see your soul is different," the dragon sighed. "My mistake. You're my uncle. But… where is Merlin?"

"Your uncle?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," the dragon said. "My uncle. You look so much like him, and you have the same father. That makes you my uncle."

Nathan wanted to strangle Ichtvar to death again. And again. And again.

"I'm going to kill that fucking bird!"

"My apologies," the dragon set Nathan down carefully, and Nathan marveled at the gentleness the dragon had, as soon as his panic began to subside. "I made a mistake. Do you know where your brother is?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You're talking about Merlin, right?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Endariv answered.

"He's dead," Nathan said. "At least, according to Ichtvar. Died more than a thousand years before I was born."

"Everyone says that," the dragon sighed.

"Because it's true, Endariv," Ichtvar spoke, appearing with a flash of fire, then hovering beside Nathan. "I was there when he died, Endariv. And no, you're not killing me again, Nathan."

"He's killed you before?" Endariv gave Ichtvar an amused look. "You know, I distinctly remember Father killing you on three separate occasions."

"Don't remind me," Ichtvar grumbled.

"That's what you get for screwing with demigods with tempers," Endariv said. "You know he wiped out Morgana's world and turned it into a hostile wasteland that kills nigh anything that enters it, right?"

"I know," Ichtvar said. "The governments of this world have been tapping it for resources to make their offerings to you so that you'd keep things a secret. They'll probably have a little issue with your flight an hour ago, but I don't think many saw it, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue."

Nathan filed away the knowledge of that world to mention to Keith at some point. He wasn't sure if it was useful for something, but it was a lot easier to think about than what was going on at the moment.

"I thought I saw Father," Endariv sighed, then looked at Nathan. "But it was just his brother. They look remarkably alike. I had to look at his soul to realize he was different."

"I nearly pissed fire when I saw him," Ichtvar admitted. "Especially since I was there when Merlin died. How Nathan could look so much like him is a mystery to me, but then again, Torzin looks like a normal human from this time despite being three hundred thousand years old."

"Yeah," Endariv nodded. "Sometimes, I wonder about Gabriel. He tries to avoid me."

"You tried to eat him the last time he was here."

"He insulted me!" Endariv huffed. "Ichtvar, I'm not happy with my current offerings. I want more. They're obviously just putting in enough effort to make them. I'm even seeing patterns, now."

"What a coincidence!" Ichtvar extended a wing and patted Nathan on the back. "Nathan came here because he wanted to negotiate the offerings with you!"

"He just said he wants more," Nathan told Ichtvar.

"Show him what you made," Ichtvar told Nathan.

Nathan looked at the dragon, which was looking at him expectantly.

"I came here to negotiate a lower offering," Nathan said. "I'm not going to bother if you're going to insist on a higher one."

"I can see the enchanting in your soul," the dragon told him. "The forging meant for it. If what you make is interesting enough, I might be willing to accept some of your enchanted items in exchange for a lower cost. But monthly."

Nathan looked at Agent Smalls, then gestured for the agent to bring him his backpack. When he received it, he opened it up and pulled out a crystal orb tinged with blue.

"Shiny!" The dragon said, and Nathan gave it a confused look. "Is that really bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?"

"You can read the enchantment?" Nathan asked.

"Partially," the dragon stepped forward and moved its head to look at the orb. "I can make out that it's some sort of storage orb with a spatial increase enchantment. That's it. I can tell there's more to it, but your enchantments to prevent me from reading it are pretty decent. A few improvements could be made, but otherwise, it's good. The air inside of it doesn't look bigger, though."

"There's a dimensional space inside of it," Nathan told the dragon. "It has two insides, and we're only seeing the one that came with the orb."

"And it's for me?"

"Uh, no," Nathan placed his left hand against the orb and activated a spell set into it, causing it to hover in the air. He then held his right hand out and activated another spell, ran through the mental list of items contained within it, and selected the one he wanted. It manifested in his right hand. "This, on the other hand, is meant to be a part of our negotiations."

The dragon examined the object in Nathan's hand. At first look, it was simply a black coin with Nathan's emblem on each side, the white ring making up the edge of each side. When viewed with magical sight, however, it was impossible to read the enchantments without studying hard, Nathan had so thoroughly protected it against reading.

"That doesn't look special at all," Endariv said.

"This coin possesses the ability to level everything within a hundred miles," Nathan said, and he heard the two agents gasp as they stared at it. "Ichtvar and I alone will be capable of surviving the blast. It was generated using more than one hundred times the mana Ichtvar possesses, and according to him, he has six times as much as you, even if you are currently magically superior."

The dragon frowned at the coin.

"If it is damaged in any way," Nathan said. "The spell will activate. If any mana other than mine is put into it or attempts to touch its enchantments, it will activate."

"Didn't you say you weren't making a bomb?" Ichtvar asked Nathan in horror.

"I made an exploding coin," Nathan stated. "It's a bit different from a bomb. Endariv, I will not hesitate to level this entire place, including killing you, if I sense for even a moment you will get hostile or refuse to negotiate the price down. The department and shit can deal with the result of that, but they will be able to explain it away as a mundane attack with an experimental weapon by someone else, possibly put the blame on the people who are killing students."

The demigod stopped talking, and everyone stared at him. Ichtvar became reminded of why demigods were frightening by themselves. They truly held little care for others, and Nathan's nonchalant willingness to kill everyone nearby just to put down the dragon only served as a reminder of that. As the son of the king of the gods, Nathan held even less care for beings of the mortal realm. Even Endariv seemed hesitant after Nathan's revelation, and the phoenix didn't blame the dragon. Anyone who read into the runes – what little could be read, as it took serious effort for even the phoenix to read just one of them – could tell than it was enchanted for an explosion.

"In less than two years," Nathan finally spoke again. "The law of secrecy will be lifted. When that happens, you will no longer be asked to conceal yourself from the public, free to stretch your wings as you please without anyone begging you to stay hidden like the pathetic mortals they are. However, your demands for the secrecy are too great a cost for the governments of the world, especially with the equipment they will need to develop and produce in order to deal with the world at large knowing magic exists. So we are going to lower that demand of yours, and there is nothing you can say which will change it. Either we drop it a bit, or we drop it to none."

He flipped the coin up, then caught it.

"And the 'none' option involves the lack of your continued existence."

Endariv stood, stretching his wings and tail out.

"I am collecting enchanted items," the dragon spoke. "So that when my father returns, I may present them to him to study and improve. When he returns, he will-"

"Merlin is dead," Nathan coldly stated. "Ichtvar was present for his death, unable to act in time to save him. Your 'father' is dead. This is stated, this is fact. Accept it, Endariv. Mourn for him, rather than clinging on to the foolish belief of life when death is fact. This is an order from your uncle, Nathan Hunter, son of Ulmant, Prince of the Three Realms."

Endariv moved his head closer to Nathan once more, staring deeply.

"And get a fucking breath mint," Nathan said. "Or five thousand."