On the night of his second full day in Krinth, Kalin sat at the small table in his small room next to the small bed, and wrote in a large book fixed to a chain.

Day One - Arrived in Krinth. Found Lodgings. Assisted Master Ocean Mage Sophia in freeing of twelve local miners from Stonerock quarry.

With an effort, he kept himself from adding a comment about the local naming conventions, or from penning a footnote to explain how exactly watching someone else complete a task counted as ‘assisting.’

He had gone around to each miner afterwards, handing out water and making sure everybody was alright. He’d even patched up a few nasty scrapes from boulder-shrapnel that had hit a few of the rescuers. So it wasn’t a lie that he had assisted, not really. He continued.

Day One - Arrived in Krinth. Found Lodgings. Assisted Master Ocean Mage Sophia in freeing of twelve local miners from Stonerock quarry. Rendered aid.

Day Two - Gave poultice of greenroot to local [Tanner], who refused followup care. Drained water from basement of [Retired Professor] Jeremy using ward-assisted pump mechanism (see appendix 1.0 for schema and suggested possible applications). Received egg

Here he stopped.

The egg in question sat beside the book, on a cushion-nest of blankets that Kalin had made to keep it from rolling off the desk. At first he’d left it wrapped in its velvet blanket, but he kept taking it out to stare while trying to decide what to do, so he’d decided to make a spot for it on the desk.

The egg looked like a massive sapphire cut by a madman, hewn into an oval shape and roughly faceted until its irregular edges bounced light a hundred ways in the candlelight. It was semi-opaque, and from the edge of his eye as he wrote Kalin kept thinking he saw movement, but no matter how close he looked into the blue depths of its center where it darkened, he couldn’t make anything out.

It was hard to imagine the stone cracking open at all, let alone a living thing coming out of it. A living dragon…

Kal swallowed and focused on his report. In five days, the [Head Administrator] of the outpost at Brill would cast a high-level spell, opening up lines of communication between the outpost and its agents all across the region. It would give Kalin the option to transfer anything he’d written in his book to the office, where [Clerks] could record and manage the information.

Like all the other students, Kalin had been told over and over again how valuable and rare and precious the book that hung from the chain around his neck was, and how important it was to take care of it. Once the books awakened during the bonding ceremony, they became…not quite living things, but something close. Repositories of knowledge and information that served as conduits between dragons and mages, the tomes were equal part ‘book a human can read’ and ‘magical link to another being.’ In addition, they functioned as a link between the Order outposts and their agents, allowing for weekly communication via the written reports.

His pen moved slowly as he resumed writing. As he wrote he heard the quiet buzz of conversation in the main room below, the gentle dancing of a [Musician]’s fingers on a lyre, the thump of his own heart, all mixed together in the great melody of life, with all its attendant possibility and pain. He steadied his fingers on the pen and wrote once more.

…of unknown type and origin from Prof. Jeremy, who at further questioning denied any involvement or knowledge of the gift. Request instruction.

He sat back in the rickety wooden chair and closed his eyes. Then he leaned forward and underlined “Request instruction.” Then circled it. Then thought about crossing it out. He rubbed his head instead, feeling a small ache building at the edges of his temple. Perhaps he should just go down for the night and enjoy a nice mug of ale.

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What would the Order tell him to do, once they found out he had a dragon egg in his possession? They guarded even casual knowledge about dragons fiercely, and Kal had never heard of anyone just having a dragon egg in their possession. A [Queen] or [Archmage] perhaps, but he didn’t exactly see anything like that in his own future. It was technically possible, since a [Novice] could become anything, but that didn’t change the fact that, as of now, he was nobody. And ‘nobodys’ didn’t get to keep dragon eggs. As far as he knew, no-one kept them. As soon as one was found, a [Dragon-Keeper] showed up and took it away.

Perhaps the Order would make an exception for him. He was the first to not bond with a dragon at the Ceremony in hundreds of years, after all. Surely Prioress Evelyn would see that. Maybe she would even appoint him as the egg’s…guardian? Just until it hatched and grew enough for them to know if it would partner with him. Kalin already felt some kind of connection to the egg, though he wasn't sure if carrying around a dragon egg increased the odds of bonding to the dragon.

If that’s really what it is, he thought, tapping his pen on the desk. He tried to think back to the couple times he’d been allowed into the Hatchery by the [Dragon-Keeper]. He hadn’t been a friendly man, and it hadn’t been an inviting place, but despite his vague memories, Kal couldn’t help but think that the egg in front of him was a lot…smaller than the ones he’d seen there. Maybe they’d just been from larger species, or…

The black ink from his pen sank into the thick pages until it no longer reflected the light from the lone candle on the desk, and he read back what he’d written. What else was there to say? For five more days, he would have no answer, and even then, he could withhold his report if he needed to.

It took a moment before he realized what exactly he’d just been considering, and when he did he stood up and took a step back from the desk, his chair legs clattering on the ground and his heart suddenly beating fast despite the weary ache in his head.

Willingly not filing a weekly report was grounds for questioning at least, and if the Order ever found out he’d knowingly hidden a dragon egg…

That was dangerous territory, and he quickly decided he needed a break. He’d been sitting there agonizing over his entry and what it all meant for hours, and he was getting no further.

Closing his tome and wrapping the chain around his shoulder across his body, he readied himself to go outside for a walk. Perhaps the cool night air of Krinth would clear his mind.

If nothing else, the sounds and smells of the busy little town should distract him. Even as gathered his things he heard the pitiful grunts of some poor sod retching out in the street.

Nothing like the worldly smells of piss and puke to clear the mind.

Kalin hesitated for just a moment, then grabbed the egg. As he wrapped the gemstone-like egg in its velvet blanket, he caught a glimpse once more of the dark vastness at its center, like a shifting blob of pure nothing.

A question rose unbidden to his mind.

How far would he go? If the Order commanded him to return the egg, would he…

For about the tenth time that night, he shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts that stuck like cobwebs in his head. He was overthinking things, guessing at a future no one could tell.

Instructor Relen would have bonked him softly on the head with his staff and told him he was pulling up sprouts before they’d had a chance to grow. Give it time.

With his egg safely wrapped in his pack and his tall wooden staff in hand, Kalin walked down to the main room, only realizing as he heard the creaking of the stairs under his feet that the tavern had gone quiet.

Strange, he thought, as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He stopped suddenly before he stepped into the room, waiting and listening. Something wasn’t right. The inn had been bustling with—

Before he could get a better sense for what was going on, something heavy slammed into him, and it was all he could do to keep his feet.

He planted the butt of his staff against the stair behind him and fought for balance, trying to disentangle himself as a gruff voice called out.

“Well then, is this the little friend you were talking about, Professor?”

Kalin got a face full of bushy white hair, then saw [Retired Professor] Jeremy’s face. He was grinning widely, and his huge eyebrows bounced up and down as he spoke, looking Kalin in the eye.

“Yep yep yessir! He’s the one!”

He leaned in as if to cup a hand around Kalin’s ear, and Kal saw that his hands were bound and pulled tight behind his back.

“Bad news these ones,” he whispered loudly, tossing his head toward the bulky, heavily armored man standing a foot to his side. “But don’t worry, I’ve got a plan! All we need is a keg of beer and a chicken, and in no time these bandit-rats will be—oof!”

The big man shoved an armored fist into Professor Jeremy’s stomach and he doubled over, groaning extravagantly. As he collapsed to the floor, the old Professor shot Kalin a wink.

Then the armored man pulled a knife and turned to Kalin, whose mind had gone back to one of the final talks he’d had with Prioress Evelyn before leaving the outpost.

What was it she had told him about staying out of dangerous situations?