“How do you feel?” Nurend asked. The fragrance of the tea in front of them filled the room, making it seem as if they were in a garden of herbs. David pulled his sleeve up. The ring on his arm was thicker and almost complete. Chloe’s own was a ring of musical notes already. Zoey’s thorny ring was almost the same as David’s. Elisha’s too.

“I know I feel like I can control a lot more essence than I could when we came to this floor,” Zoey said. Nurend nodded.

“The tests are like training after all. The more you train, the easier it becomes for your body to use essence. While my punishment was to show you death as much as possible, it was also to spur your growth. Jaresh’s task is to break you.”

“Should you be telling us what to expect?” David asked. He was sitting a bit away from them, leaning against a wall left of the others. He picked up his cup of tea and sipped. It had stayed the same temperature since it was served. As if there was something reheating it. Magic, he decided. Everything was possible here with a little essence manipulation.

“Jaresh’s methods are straightforward,” Nurend said grinning. He did that every time he mentioned his brother’s name, as if there was some kind of secret he wasn’t telling them. David expected that anyway. They were dragons, prideful and cunning. There were other things disturbing him though, things he couldn’t put away.

“What you should fear isn’t Jaresh himself,” Nurend said. “It is his Fangs that should worry you. They are ruthless. Unlike Hilga and I, Jaresh has almost no control over them.”

“And they will be part of our test?”

“They will be your curses,” Nurend said and this time there was no smile. He was turned to David, his eyes hard as if he’d suddenly lost all mirth from before. “Whatever you think you have gained, it is not enough. Jaresh’s Six Fangs are cruel and bored. You will be their piece meal. And unlike me, Jaresh will not bring you back.”

Silence spread over the room, wrestling with the sweet scent. The silence stretched until it was uncomfortable.

David was not new to fear, but this time he was facing dragons. No one back home had faced dragons before—not his parents, not even the leader of Specter. David wondered what his father would say if he heard they were battling dragons in void spaces.

“What is your mother like?” Zoey asked. Nurend seemed surprised for a moment. Then he chuckled. “What? We will be facing her at one point right?”

“If you survive Jaresh, you will go to Veenar, our sister. Veenar is kind to most, but to those chosen by tower gods, she shows her dark side…trust me, Ziel is still far from sight.”

“Tell us anyway,” David said, looking at Nurend through the mild steam floating up. Nurend nodded.

“Ziel was one of the wives of Ignis,” Nurend said and David nodded. He had suspected that. They had the same temperament, like volcanoes ready to erupt at any moment. “She defeated Carax easily, before any of us were born even. She was lightning, righteous and destructive. And she fought Amareth and Volhir, the god of the fourth tower.

“In the annals, it is recorded that Volhir got bored of the battle and decided to leave, but our mother tells a different story. But Amareth gave her a sincere fight. She respects the god for that. They fought for days, weeks as you mortals measure time. They fought until they ruptured mountains and restructured worlds. And then Ziel realized Amareth wasn’t using all of his strength.”

“You just said he fought her earnestly,” Elisha said.

“Yes,” Nurend said. “He fought her with just enough power to make them equals. An insult to a dragon.”

“Or mercy,” Zoey said.

“Not from a dragon’s perspective,” Nurend said, his face darkened with the clear expression of disgust at what Zoey had suggested. “We are not gods, but we are not weak.” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smiled. When he opened his eyes again, they were softer than they had been.

Zoey scoffed.

“In rage, she entered Amareth’s tower and slaughtered the dragon Amareth gave the first floor to. She would have gone up the tower in a rage, but Amareth quickly came up with a suggestion. She would serve for a specific time while getting stronger, and after her service, if she was confident of her strength, they would fight again.”

“So, your mother is simply waiting for her revenge?” Elisha asked. Nurend shrugged.

“Or her death,” David added.

“Whether she ends the tower god or she dies, she will find peace in either. What you should worry about is your next hurdle.” Nurend grinned when none of them replied. “Well, let me give you your gift!”

He clapped his hand and four masked creatures came in with black boxes. The black was deep and embroidered with gold lines like tree branches snaking all over the surface. The boxes were placed in front of them.

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David stared at the one in front of him. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but he could feel something radiating off the box. Essence? Was there some kind of magical item in the box?

“While I am one of the youngest,” Nurend said, “I happen to be one of the few dragons with a vast hoard of treasures. I could have given you weapons, but what I think you need right now are these. I will leave you alone to figure out what to do with them,” he said, his eyes falling on David before he stood up and walked away.

Without him in the room, there was a lightness to the air. As if they had all been on their toes, worried that the dragon would pounce at any moment. David hadn’t even known he felt that too until he sighed, gulping the rest of his tea.

“More gifts,” Chloe said, staring at the box in front of her nervously. She looked at David first and when he nodded, she sighed and opened the lid of her box. Elisha and Zoey had already opened theirs. They all pulled out a small pinkie-size vial with a bluish fluid inside. David opened his to find the same thing inside. But beside his vial was a small, polished stone. It looked solid, but when he picked it up, he saw that it wasn’t exactly a stone. When he put it up above him, it seemed like glass for a moment with something within.

“Touch it to your chest,” a masked creature said. She had appeared out of nowhere. Her mask was a crying bird. It was weeping blood. But behind the mask was long flowing black hair. She was already sitting, so David couldn’t see if she had a tail either.

“What is it?” David asked, noticing that they all had objects like his, but with slight differences. Zoey’s was a flat slab and a vial, Elisha’s was a perfectly round orb and Chloe’s was a blood red quartz-like stone.

“The vials carry refined essence, and the objects within carry gifts from our lord dragon. You will assimilate these gifts faster if you absorb the objects. You will learn faster depending on your ability, I will be here to guide you.”

“What do we do?” Zoey asked, staring at the slab in her hand. David weighed the glassy stone in his hand. He wasn’t sure he trusted the masked creature, but there was nothing else he could do. He knew nothing about magical items like this, and very little about essence itself.

“First,” she said, “You drink the essence in the vial. The amount in that vial will be shocking, so prepare yourself. You will need every drop of that essence to wrestle the gifts the lord dragon has given you. That is what I am here for, to guide you through the difficult paths you are about to embark on.”

David nodded.

“Will it kill us?” Chloe asked with shaky breath. The masked creature leaned forward so she was looking directly at Chloe.

“The Lord Dragon wouldn’t kill you like this, child. Now, drink up.”

They all took the essence at once. Dipping their heads back, they emptied the contents at once. Chloe screamed first. Something stretched out of the masked woman’s sleeve, like a tentacle. It wrapped around Chloe, shocking the others. David was about to grab his sword when an explosion of pain in his chest made him stagger back and fall.

He groaned, trying to pry his chest open. It was burning, a large forest fire was razing in his chest. His throat was hot, and his eyes might as well be melting. It was like every second carried a different explosion. Then he felt the ebbing, the flames being doused.

It took a moment for him to hear the voice, her voice.

“There, now try to absorb it. Don’t let it rage, it is yours, make it yours.”

She whispered it in their ears, their minds, through the haze of pain. The essence was pure so it was hard to tame. But David followed the woman’s every word. They were like directions, and the more she spoke, the easier it was to move. All he had to do was breathe and let his body do the rest of the work. His body knew what to do, it led the essence where it should go, until David could feel it rushing throughout his body, as blood was wont to do.

“Now, the gifts children. Push them against your chest,” She said, that soft whisper again—calming, convincing. David half-wondered if that was a skill she was using. He pushed the stone to his chest and watched it dissolve and vanish into him. There was no glow, no ceremony. It simply disappeared and he got pulled away from the room.

He was falling for a moment, but the creature’s voice held him, reminded him there was no need to fear. Then a world was rushing up to him, it had appeared out of nowhere. There were flames, a city was burning. No, an empire. The flames stretched for so long that it seemed like it was the whole world that was burning.

In the sky below him, David could see forms moving.

“See,” the woman said, and they got clearer. And not only that, he knew who he was looking at almost immediately. Ignis was young, almost like Nurend, but with flowing silver hair. His skin was pale and his robe—blue like a clear noon sky—seemed untouched with the destruction below him.

His movements were fluid, like water moving in a channel. Guided, but free. His sword hummed with essence as he controlled fire and wind, mixing them up effortlessly. His opponent was blurry, but they were strong too.

That scene vanished and was replaced by Ignis, a little older, practicing something else. This place was barren. For as far as David could see, the place was dead. Nothing grew, nothing lived. But Ignis moved slowly—first his legs and then his hands. He wasn’t holding any sword. He wasn’t fighting any enemy.

David gasped as he realized something he’d missed. Ignis was weak here. That power that radiated from him before was gone. Something had happened. As he wondered, he understood. He was beginning to grasp what the stone was now, and he could understand why they needed essence to use the gifts.

Processing this much information would take a long time and a lot of essence, but Nurend and his masked creature were pushing so much into him and the others. The scene changed again, and again. Each showing Ignis using or learning different techniques. All of which David realized he could use. Perhaps not yet, but he could definitely find something useful.

He felt an immense sense of appreciation. For some reason, he didn’t trust Nurend. Now, he felt conflicted about that. He kept watching Ignis, learning about the dragon until the memory stone was empty. When he opened his eyes, he was soaked with sweat and his head felt heavy and the woman was gone.

The others were asleep, except Zoey. She was sipping her tea, staring at where the woman had sat opposite them.

“How do you feel?” David asked.

“I thought I was strong before, David, I really did,” Zoey said and then she laughed a sad, brief laugh. “How terribly wrong I was.”