“Are they going to be alright?” asked Azureath.

The healer, a lion woman, stood up and took off her spectacles. “It’s hard to tell,” she said with a sigh. “They’re lucky they only got a small fraction of a fatal dose, but a small fraction of Aetherium is nothing to be trifled with. It’s even worse for them since they’re completely unprotected, being not from this continent. They don’t even have a passive mana particle aura like us.”

“Is there…nothing we can do? Is this…?”

“No,” snapped the lion healer. “They are not in danger, but I have induced a coma and put them in incubation chambers to heal. It will take some weeks, maybe even a month or so, before they regain consciousness. Part of healing is to let your body focus on repairing your body while minimizing bodily functions, with healing magic helping to expedite and otherwise prevent unnecessary side effects. In short, yes, I am not sure if they’ll be alright, but no. They are not dying.”

Azureath and the others sighed in relief. She really did not want her saviors to die so soon.

However, it showed how dangerous the light dragons could be, now that it answered their questions regarding the mystery of the light pillars. It may not be that dangerous to those with protection against Aetherium, but they had no way to fight against a light dragon a full strength. The dragon, Shawar, was already weakened by Zenithia’s efforts, but he was still only barely defeated by a risky strategy that ended up putting the three non-magic users into a coma.

But despite all that, Azureath was still angry at the white-scaled dragon.

She had her own reasons, which was understandable. She belonged to a dragon race that happened to be as mysterious as they came, and also hostile. But she could just spare them the mystery and tell everyone what she needed to know. True, she risked of being ignored or denounced as a liar, but with the pillars being a mystery and a looming danger, even a lie could give them an insight of what was going on.

“Maybe not that much of an insight,” thought Azureath. “But I prefer being more open than keeping secrets.”

It also dawned to the azure dragon that Zenithia was also hiding something despite of being exposed as a light dragon. Azureath hated secrets and the ‘I’ll tell you later’ attitude. As a dragon, she considered those a thing for the smaller beings. Everyone had a secret, including dragons. Dragons, however, chose not to keep it a secret, unless they were actually dangerous and bore an ill omen.

This fact, and the fact that Zenithia was still partially responsible for putting the Ternorians into a coma, caused the dragon to avoid Zenithia for a couple of days and did what she was meant to do in Dracokin: to solve the mystery of the Mark of the Fallen and the ominous incantations that the dragons said in a trance.

After the incantations, the Marked dragons fell into a coma and could not be woken up, even by any means known to the college of mages. With the revelation that the Marked dragons had something to do with calling the pillars of light and summoning the light dragon that ravaged the outer walls, knowing more about them became an important project that drew other mages away from their own project and focused on that one. This put Ritik in the spotlight, considering that he was the project leader of the apparently ‘unimportant’ project. But it soon became apparent for the kobold that his situation was as difficult as it came.

The others were aware of this, especially Richie, who stumbled upon Ritik arguing with a dark-skinned human mage. The dragonborn could clearly hear how the human considered the kobold ‘unfit’ for being the leader of a joint project, with Ritik arguing that he, as the project leader since the start of the project, should stay the leader for he knew what he was doing. The human disagreed.

“Just because you happen to be a magical creature, doesn’t mean you know more about runes and ancient languages!” he argued.

“I’m a bronze kobold, Abdul. I live with runes all my life! I know you desert people have more knowledge of it, but that doesn’t justify you taking over on that basis! Do you even know what they translated to?”

“Well, do you?”

“I got a breakthrough.”

“That happens to be a dragon with an incomplete Mark. Ritik, your project already failed. If it wasn’t for the Pol Hain light, the council’s going to terminate the project and ordered the dragons to be rehabilitated. You just got your break, but that’s it.”

“Is this because I’m a kobold?”

“I never said that!”

“But you imply it so. Kobolds are thieves and a historically subservient race that worshipped dragons. I read that human-written book and I objected to it. No one’s gonna listen because I am a fucking kobold!”

“Ritik, you are thinking too much of this matter. And besides, you are talking to the wrong person.” Abdul sighed. “In any case, you should not get your arrogance take you. Mages are vulnerable to that, including you.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Abdul swiftly walked away, walking past Richie, apparently choosing to ignore the gold-accented red Eastern dragonborn. Hearing the conversation made the dragonborn a little annoyed that, even in a fantasy world, racial issues was still there.

Only, in an ironic twist, a dark-skinned human was the one doing it. Richie started to think that maybe the humans were more united, regardless of skin color, but against beast races, they clearly were more bigoted.

He knew the situation too well due to the most recent events that he remembered when he was still a human of Asian descent. Sympathetic with Ritik, despite of his haughty personality, Richie approached the kobold, who let out an exasperated sigh.

“Having trouble with colleagues?” said Richie. “Don’t worry. It’ll come to past. I don’t think he’s that much of a kobold hater.”

“Richie. Uh, hi,” said Ritik awkwardly.

“We’re friends now, Ritik. You don’t need to try and be formal to me. I mean, no one seemed to care that I’m 7 feet tall dragonborn. Well, the dragons do. I just don’t like being stared at or being considered this stuff of legend.”

“You’re too humble for someone with golden scales.”

“I am still predominantly red. Say, uh…about that project. I guess they did not expect a kobold to suddenly be the foremost expert on the runes, huh?”

“How about if we take a walk?” suggested Ritik. “I really need to calm myself down. Yesterday’s been pretty bad and now I need to deal with ignorant mages.”

And so, the two walked through Dracokin. Richie soon noticed that there weren’t any kobolds in the city, with the only reptilians around being dragons. He started to understand Ritik’s problems.

Ritik then said, “You heard what Abdul said, about his people being more of an expert when it came to ancient languages? He wasn’t wrong, you know. The desert humans had civilizations as old as the elves. They co-existed with them. Unlike many other civilizations, they kept a big archive on runes and ancient languages. The Stone of Lanuri was one of them.”

“Let me guess. That stone contains translations of three ancient languages.”

“Four exactly. The Stone was carved in a time when the Gift of Languages magic was not as widely used. In any case, it still showed that they kept their tradition strong. Kobolds, on the other hand, had lost most of it. Only a handful of tribes, separated by metal scale colors, kept it. But unfortunately, we’re…kind of an isolationist. The kobolds that went out to the world, well…they didn’t fare that well. It turned them to the lucrative draw of crime. Slavery, thievery, those kinds of stuff. That’s why I am very sensitive on this matter. I am a kobold. Abdul is a human. Guess who’s gonna be picked first.”

“Is that why this city has no kobolds in it?”

“No. Kobolds are isolationists, Richie. We don’t like big dwellings full of dragons, humans, elves, and other races out there. I just happen to be so peculiar. I’m a bronze kobold mage.” He scoffed. “No one’s gonna believe that. Not even my people.”

He then touched his leather belt collar. Richie could see a crest with an ornate design.

“This thing won’t even matter much if I don’t put some magical protection to it,” said Ritik. “Or even when I don’t show them that I’m some arrogant mage with magic spells that can burn them or something like that.”

“So, that haughty, no nonsense personality of yours is just an act?”

“Not really. I can come out as a jerk. I mean, you can’t help it if you are the only one who knows things, right? I admit, I can be an arrogant douche, but I am also aware of that. In any case, I’m sorry if you think of it that way.”

“Maybe you should tell that to Adeline instead. She doesn’t seem to like you that much.”

“If she ever wakes up.” Ritik sighed. “I didn’t expect us to be dealing with Aetherium, or even light dragons. I’m not even sure light dragons even existed.”

“Dark dragons do. Just look at Avila.”

“Only because she happens to be an aspect of Death. I don’t believe in that kind of stuff. In fact, I’m even more surprised an omnipotent being like her is involved in this. Just how dangerous are these light dragons is for Death herself to be involved?”

“I don’t know much about those supernatural stuff, either. But you know what we can do? Relax and try to recover from the ordeal we just got through.”

“Relax? But we still have—”

“Ritik, if you stay on edge like that, you won’t give a good impression. Trust me, buddy. Life will feel much easier if you wind down a bit. Let your apprentices do your job. I hope you already tell them what to do.”

“I did. Before I went to Pol Hain.”

“And don’t worry about them ousting you out of your position. If they do so, they’ll have to go through me and Azureath. Just take advantage of it. You got a friend in a dragon and a legendary dragonborn, after all.”

“I….” Ritik was unsure on how to react. He never had a close friend. Kobolds had a bad reputation, and if he did not look like he knew what he was doing, he would fall victim to it. He was, by far, the first and only kobold who graduated the academy and be a full-fledged mage with apprentices under him. True, his apprentices respected him, but he wasn’t sure if they actually liked him. Nobody liked to have a kobold boss them around.

And Richie was the first person who did not feel that way towards him. He did come from another world, but that wasn’t the problem. He was genuinely kind and understanding, even more so than Hans. Maybe it was because Richie was a dragonborn? Maybe he felt deep respect towards him?

Nevertheless, he appreciated that for once, someone was not asking him to step down or say that they were much better in doing his job.

“So, what to do around here?” said Richie. “Anything relaxing? A meditation garden, perhaps? I don’t want to go to a tavern. Rowdy people only sour the mood. And besides, you wouldn’t want to get into trouble.”

“We can go to the college’s herbarium,” said Ritik. “There’s no one there except the gardeners.”

“But will there not be any…you know, screaming mandragoras or shit like that?”

“Screaming mandragoras? What is that? Oh, if you mean magical plants, there is a separate herbarium for that. We do have normal greenhouses, too, you know.”

“Of course, you are. Lead the way.”

Ritik nodded, then walked with Richie away from all the worries. He found a friend that he could rely on, and that friend happened to be a dragonborn.

He never felt prouder as a kobold.