She flinched at those questions, pushing a bit of her hair behind an ear and looking down into her now cup of orange juice. I had to push it a little.
“Sally, the most powerful being I knew in all my travels to different worlds was part human and part dragon. Don’t be afraid of telling me who you are. You can trust me.”
Again, she shivered, probably thinking about her past. “Eh, what’s the harm, anyway?” She conceded to my questions, “I could give you the stories and history of our world but, that’ll take forever. Half-breeds came about after humans began enslaving dragons. They figured out how to inseminate female dragons, and that’s how we came to be. At the start, they did it simply for business – slave-traders. We were bought and sold like cattle, but there was a dispute in the House of Vanalq one day, and a half-breed slave ended up saving an heir’s life. That heir is now the head, and ruler of this world. He has decreed that the slave trade be stopped and that we be given equal opportunity, but the mistreatment is still very much there. In the end, he couldn’t change such a matured culture.”
Hmm, interesting story. “And even half-breeds are allowed to have dragons? Where do these dragons come from?”
“No one knows. It has been said that the dragons were the first inhabitants of this world. We have no idea where the younglings we summon come from. The young of the dragons in this world are still there even after we do mass summons, so it’s not like we are taking their young.”
Hmm, I’d like to meet them. According to what she was saying, there were the dragons living amongst the people of Et Draco, and there were dragons that they summoned to them. I ogled her. “Are you aware you have seals on you to stifle your mana?”
Her bustling eyes settled on me calmly for a few seconds. “Yeah, rumours leaked out from the purebreds. We have no idea how to remove it. Most of the purebreds don’t know either. Only those responsible for the insemination process knows how to undo the seals.”
I leaned back, running some thoughts through my mind. “Can you stand up for a moment?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes, unable to figure me out, but doing as I wanted anyway. I placed a finger on her abdomen and removed one of the seals. Mana flowed through her body a lot more loosely, and she keeled and nearly fell over. Luckily, I saved her from a bad table headbutt with void magic and laid her down. Her mana pathways were opened a little. “Here,” I brought her head up a bit, “drink this. It will repair your health. When the mana in you stabilises, I’ll remove the other four seals, okay?”
“You removed a seal?!” she almost lost her mind. Her body was convulsing with power, yet she still managed to clasp her hands on my cheeks, “H-h-h-how?!”
I let loose a hearty snigger, “Come now, relax, okay?”
She looked at me like I was crazy, but simmered down after a while. A little light manipulation and arcane magic helped her sleep properly; that post-somnolent urge after a heavy meal didn’t help her disinclination to sleep either. It was a bit early, as sundown hadn’t yet arrived, I stepped outside for a walk. Some of the half-breed folk around these parts fled when they saw me. Some were curious but watched at a safe distance whilst a few of them stood their ground and didn’t show any weakness. I guess there are those who would stand up to their bullies no matter how bad the situation is. Admirable.
A little girl, probably straying away from those who looked after her, was defeated by her curiosity. She fell victim to a playful gesture for her to come over to me. Kids are so trusting. “Hey there, crazy hair!” I poked light fun at her ruffled hair, “My name is Eric! What’s yours?”
“I’m Saya!” she said excitedly.
“Wanna play a game together? If you win, you’ll get a ride on a dragon!” I bargained.
Her eyes sparkled in wonderment, already in my clutches, “Yeah! Yeah, let’s play!”
“Okay, okay,” I knelt down to get to her height, “here’s how it goes. We’re going to list the different things about a half-breed’s body compared to a purebred! Every time you get one, you get a point. Whoever has the most points wins! How’s that sound?”
She readily agreed. Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth cared not for the implications our backgrounds would bring. Saya didn’t give a fuck and just wanted to play and have fun. There should be more people like her.
“Okay, let’s start!”
“Eyes!” she quickly said.
“Hey, I was gonna say that!” I complained.
She stuck her tongue out at me in victory. “Ooh, and big mana and small mana!”
“How are you stealing my ideas like this?!” I faux-cried.
She busted her brain now, intent on winning this. “Ah, elemental magic!” she said slowly, taking her time to pronounce the big word. I mean, sure, that was something that wasn’t particularly a physical difference, but I mean, mana pathways were different from being to being anyway, so she was technically right.
“No way,” I roll back in defeat! “How are you so smart?! That’s unfair!”
She snickered in victory, “Because Saya studies!” she proudly claimed. “Wanna know a secret, Eric?” she teased. “We can metarofose too!” she stood in total domination of the game; her victory totally assured.
“Ah, I admit defeat! I shouldn’t have challenged the great Saya!” I played with her a bit. She went on to say something about her favourite food, going off on a tangent because cheese toast was the single greatest thing the deities ever created.
Just now, she wanted to say metamorphose, didn’t she?
“Saya!” A hurried older woman called to the bubbly young girl. “Come here, girl! Don’t just talk to strangers like that! Especially purebreds!” The woman spoke softly, but my sharpened senses caught the words before they were dragged away by the gentle winds.
Right, figures she wouldn’t trust purebreds at this point. Okay, so all half-breeds have slightly serpentine eyes. A bit colder to the touch than a regular human as well, so I can at least tell the difference, but just glancing ain’t gonna be enough. Hmm, I pondered about trying to help this world. We’ve got about three years until Apollyon visits us. Can I get Et Draco’s help soon enough for their allegiance to fit well with the others in the summit? And if no, is it okay for someone who’s in training to oversee the balance of the worlds to leave something like this as is? How do I free the half-breeds without inciting war? A small number of them can fuck up the humans if I ain’t careful.
Eventually, I abandoned my thoughts. It was pointless formulating what to do with so little information. I knew what my next target was for now, and I chose to wait it out until tomorrow. Sally and I had breakfast, and she was feeling better than ever. “So, I know you didn’t get to summon your own dragon or whatever you guys do in that class yesterday,” Skyer manifested into his physical form, “so you can use mine.”
Her eyes popped. The other people’s eyes popped. Saya sprinted to me like a madwoman, tugging at my sleeve and pointing to Skyer; her mouth was agape. I couldn’t help but guffaw! She was really funny in her own way. I patted her head, “Sorry, Saya. We’ve got to attend this thing today. But when we come back, you can get your ride, okay?”
She nodded her head enthusiastically, and quickly accepted my pastry treat bribery. The now gleeful student and I made our way back to the town we were at before, landing in the parking spot for dragons. Needless to say, a snow-white arcane dragon was something never seen before I’m sure; it was from a different world after all. What’s more, a half-breed rode it, sharing a ride with a purebred. Heresy of the highest order I’d imagine. “Today we’ve got field practise,” Sally told me, leading me elsewhere. It was a wide-open area, and because Skyer was so damn fast, we arrived a lot earlier than most of the other students.
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“Hey, do you know a guy named Saeryn?” I asked.
I could’ve sworn her neck did that owl thing and turned completely around, “How do you know Saeryn?”
“So, you do know him?”
“Y-yeah?” she shrugged. “Well, no, not personally. The people who took care of me when I was younger used to talk about him. What about him?”
I laughed, finding it quite interesting now. “I’m pretty sure he’s your biological brother.”
“Huh?!” Again, the owl in her made her twist her neck to watch me.
“Well, you two share an uncanny resemblance. So, who knows?”
After chatting a bit, the class was started by the same cane-ridden old man. I sat back and relaxed, whilst they practised wind magic on a magical construct of sorts. There was a rotating part inside of it that would give a reading of how powerful the wind magic was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand the writing; I’d have to map someone’s mind to do that. Everyone finished, and the old instructor was writing his notes down about their progress or lack of. Suddenly, someone shouted out something ridiculous. “Let the new guy try!” the random voice suggested. The instructor stroked his beard in sudden interest, perhaps curious himself.
Hmm, should I go with everything or nothing? Hmm… I decided to stack Purist five times, giving me 1700% mana power. After mastering mind magic, my base mana power sat at a nice 1200%. The whirling winds of Wind God surrounded me, and I concentrated them straight to the device. Needless to say, the device broke, but it still managed to measure something. “Ah, forgive me, instructor.” I used void to put the broken pieces back into place and transmutation to meld them together again.
“N-next is earth!” he said, choosing not to reply. He began feeling a little nervous. The earth test was a bit more complex. It was divided into two. A special boulder laid in a sandbox, like what you’d see at a kid’s playground, just way bigger. The objective was to lift the boulder, which was kind of strong-arming what you want from earth magic, and then floating the loose sand to cover the boulder, so it tested your magical finesse as well. The purebreds aced it. Most of the half-breeds failed, but not Sally though. That removed seal really opened up her level of control.
At last, my turn came, and I knew this because of everyone’s expectant stares. Am I a student now? I chuckled nervously. I did the test, to a much less amazed crowd of students because of the close-ended nature of the test.
“Next, water and ice!” the instructor shouted.
The test for water was simple to understand but difficult to do. There was a stream of running water, and in the stream were five partitions to form smaller streams. Those partitions had little doors that would randomly close then measure the amount of time that it was covered with water. The students’ job was to minimise the amount of time. So basically, if the door closes, stop the water from running. However, you’d lose points if you stopped the stream when the door is open. It was a test of observation and adaptation.
This was one of the tests where purebred and half-breed scores were pretty close. I advised Sally to lay low and do an average job. We took the most time on this test, and overall, the scores weren’t that high. I got the highest score, but it wasn’t perfect. This test was the most fun because of the suspense at least.
Next was ice, and it was really simple. “Form the biggest ice crystal you can,” the instructor said, his only rule being to encapsulate another device so it could measure just how much ice you were able to conjure. Very, freeing, it was.
Before I started, I had to ask, “Listen, man, are you sure you want me to go as far as I can?”
“Worry not, I will tell you when to stop.”
I shrugged, and began forming the ice. My mana regenerates faster than I’m forming the damn crystal. In the first place, mana and mana power are the only limiting factors to manipulation. Fine then…
I continued on, forming the ice, and having to make it grow oddly, in order to conform to the space given. The instructor never told me to stop. My ice was spreading forth into the entire school, covering everywhere. I kept a path open in case people needed to move about, but the entire school was covered head to toe in ice. He was definitely gonna get an earful for allowing this, but I think he didn’t care and wanted to really measure me. Too bad my mana was full and I could indefinitely keep going, so I kept at it. It began going out to the town, and in a couple minutes, I had an oversized block of ice floating above the town and continuing further into the forest. “I reached the forest, you know. Not even you can see that far. What’s the point of this?” I posed to him.
“How much mana do you have left?”
“It’s full, dude.”
“How are you not passed out? You should be sweaty, exhausted, falling over. Why aren’t you?”
Ah, so he was curious about Division. That reminds me, I should ask Donna if I can teach a few people Division. I sighed, “Sorry, the person who taught me doesn’t want others to know. But yes, magic doesn’t sap stamina from me.”
“Impossible!” he muttered under his breath while eyeing me head to toe. “Boy, if y–”
The instructor stopped suddenly; looked like he’d seen a ghost with the way his haemoglobin departed from his face. Who knew humans could do that? I chuckled on the inside. Hmm, judging from the way everyone else is giving looks of shock, I should probably turn around and greet the entitled person who probably wants to either use me or burn me at the stake.
So, I turned around and saw a man. He was dressed normally, nothing about him seemed powerful or important. He was just a dude, you know? Not to mention, he had no entourage of followers or bodyguards. “You must be the stray summon. Good morning to you, my name is Christophe Vanalq. Just call me Chris,” he said, giving a warm smile.
“Ah, Chris, it’s nice to meet you. Unfortunately, I haven’t been here long enough to hear about you. Name’s Eric Archibald; just Eric is fine though.”
He nodded his head, paying full attention to every detail about me; I wondered if he even heard what I said. “Say, I’ve worked up a bit of an appetite walking over here. Mind if we have a snack for a few minutes?” The casual young man offered. I obliged him, and we simply walked towards the school’s cafeteria.
Due to his name and how everyone else reacted, I knew he was some bigshot fella. “What’re you feeling peckish for?” I asked, looking at the posher than usual menu of a cafeteria.
“Honestly? Some good wine.”
“Then wine we shall have, Chris,” I made some fancy glass goblets and we picked a seat a bit away from everyone – not that there was anyone using the place at the moment. We sat down, facing each other on a high table, our feet tucked by the footrest under our stools. “So, let’s skip straight to the end, shall we? What’s your ultimatum?”
His head leaned to the side, “My ultimatum? What do you mean?”
“I mean the part where you either offer or threaten me with a must-do task, and if I don’t comply, there would be consequences.”
He looked me right in the eyes, uninterrupted and deadpan for about ten seconds straight before muttering a single word. In fact, he didn’t say anything, not before his boisterous cachinnation. A bit more and it felt like his ponytail would burst out its tie. He wiped his slightly sweaty forehead in his baggy shirt’s sleeve. “You’re a riot, Eric! I’m not here to impose such a cruel fate. It’s more of a warning. And assuming all that ice from before came from you, then the warning is definitely due.”
“Oh? Well that’s sweet of you. So,” I took a bit of a gulp in my wine, “what’s the warning about?”
“Protecting yourself,” he suddenly turned serious. “The House of Vanalq will take you, use you, and leave for dead if you don’t leave our nation.”
Hmm, will they now? “Well, that doesn’t sound nice at all,” I said playfully. “Chris, I’ve heard that the current ruler was the one who ended slave-trade of the half-breeds. I want to help him iron out the wrinkles leftover.”
He guffawed, “So, you’re an idealist like him. You’re both fools in my opinion, but I do admit it’s an admirable thing to do.” His fingers rested lightly on the bottom of the glass, “He refuses to depend on cruelty, thinking that he can make things right without resorting to inhumane means. All he’s doing is allowing us humans who sit at the top of society to continue to abuse the half-breeds because he’s scared of an uprising that would replace him with the same corrupt leader he fears for this country.” Christophe grew agitated, clenching his teeth every now and then, “He’s just an indecisive coward!”
I moved a bit closer and lowered my voice, “What if he has the seals removed secretly? The half-breeds will be able to look after themselves,” I pitched.
Christophe’s eyes widened, then returned to normal quickly. “So, you know about that,” he said jokingly. “It’s a good plan, of course, but he also fears that. Who’s to say they can guarantee the ‘released’ half-breeds won’t run amok and seek revenge? Who’s to say they won’t topple society and simply reverse the roles? He’s trying to strike a balance without causing misfortune to others. Admirable, but impossible.”
I exhaled wearily. Another societal issue. Getting involved in all this mess was beginning to knacker me.
“You should meet him. Although, if you do, be weary of his family. They’re nothing but vipers waiting to strike at your weaknesses.”
“Why are you here?” I simply switched the topic. “And Christophe, I’ll know if you’re lying to me.”
“To give you a warning, remember? You should go back to wherever you came from. But,” he put a hand on my shoulder, “to be honest, that’s just one reason. The other, if you choose to stay, is to give you an ultimatum, just like you figured.”
“And that is?”
“Help the ruler, otherwise people like Sally and Saya may end up dead.”