I looked at Dusk, and for a few moments, silent understanding passed between us. Then I turned to look at the elder dragon.

“This will help the mantle dragon populations, right?” I asked.

Ivy’s mother made a so-so gesture, and I noticed that she had ever so slightly claw tipped fingers.

“It’s not going to rewrite the global populations in a day, or anything like that. It also depends on if you mean dragon, as in Ivy or I, or if you mean dragon as in the family of creatures. An estragon is only ever likely to produce estragon eggs. If they reach fifth gate, then the odds that they can produce a terragon egg increases. That’s the reason that I was willing to offer you and one of my students a bond – estragon rarely grow to that level on their own, even if they’ve got the full potential to do so.”

She paused her lecture and shook her head.

“Regardless, the point is, it’s not going to change the world. But it will help, that’s without a doubt. It has the potential to grow, to help replenish estragon populations, and possibly even produce a few more tarragons.”

“Alright,” I said, nodding, while Dusk whistled her agreement. “I’ll do it. But I do have one more question – what makes you think there’s a leak of information within the Wyldwatch?”

“Thank you,” Ivy’s mother said, letting out a sigh of relief. “As for the leak… it’s anecdotal. But as an arcanist, I can sense energy much better than others, and use that to command beasts.”

“That’s not what Arcanists can do,” Kene interjected. “My grandmother is one, and she’s not–”

“A dragon,” Ivy’s mother said. “She’s a human, or maybe a hag. Either way, even though hags have more complex mana, they don’t have the abilities of a beast. Humans and humanoids get a different ability, more in line with humankind’s versatility and spellcrafting skills. But magical beasts, like me, get access to the ability to sense and command non-sapient energetic beings, like plants and beasts.”

“Alright then,” I said, “as you were saying?”

“As an arcanist, I have some command over beasts,” Ivy’s mother continued. “That’s how I’ve sensed the terragon egg and the mantle estragon eggs. But they’re not the only things I’ve been able to find with my power. I’ve used it to locate and find multiple endangered, rare, or even simply uncommon species of creature, in the attempt to send them to where they can be in conservation reserves or returned to their native territory. When I was younger, I unerringly reported to the Wyldwatch. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve noticed that the more expensive creatures end up in the hands of poachers, stolen on transit. It’s not every time, that would be far too obvious. Whoever the mole is, or moles are, they’re more clever than that.”

“But it’s enough that we don’t really trust the Wyldwatch,” Ivy said, giving me a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, Mal. We trust people, not organizations. We trust you, not auxiliary watchmember Baker.”

“I get that,” I said, “it’s fine.”

“But we don’t know you, Kene,” Ivy’s mother said. “Can we trust you to keep it a secret?”

“See, part of the problem with that,” Kene said with a wary smile, “is that there’s no good way to answer. I’m only here because Malachi trusts me. So I guess the question is, do you trust Malachi’s judgment?”

Ivy let out a snort of laughter.

“You should have been a lawyer,” he said.

Ivy’s mom just studied him for a long moment, then smiled.

“I need a yes or no,” she finally said.

Kene met their eyes and nodded.

“Yes,” they said, and Ivy’s mother relaxed.

“Well, if we are going to be working together,” Kene said. “We should probably know your name.”

“Azalea Greenscale,” Azalea Greenscale said, “please just call me Azalea. Now, to move forwards… Take these.”

She reached into her desk and removed bracelets, like the kind that I’d seen Ivy wearing to act as an artificial shroud.

“These will suppress your mana leakage, but more importantly, they’ll act as a weak spell to stop you from being spied on with magic. It won’t stop anything huge, but if you notice your mana leaking while you’re wearing it, and you aren’t actively spellcasting, then that means someone’s watching you.”

“What if someone’s skilled enough to get around the enchantment?” Kene asked.

“Then they’re skilled enough that neither me nor my husband has a way to stop them, so why worry?”

I chuckled at that and slapped the bracelet on, quickly followed by Kene. Dusk picked hers up and stared at it.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The snap bracelet fit me fine, and could be adjusted somewhat, but it was so big on Dusk that it would be more of a straightjacket than anything.

“Have my husband resize it. For now, I’ve got a class in about ten minutes. I’ll meet with you all at the shop after work and take you to the eggs. Tell him to get started on the pressure and heat chambers. Ivy, you have class before too long as well…”

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the shop. Ivy’s dad seemed a bit disgruntled to be pulled away from his examination of our old magic items, but was excited again when he got the chance to work inside of Dusk.

He immediately dove in with no regard for his safety, complimenting Dusk the whole while. Dusk was, in turn, more than happy to help him by altering the terrain of her realm.

They spent ages working together, and finally wound up settling on an enchantment that created a false wall inside of Dusk’s treasury. Behind the wall, he used the cavern dragon ring to create an array that output immense pressure, alongside embedding several large solar mana crystals that filled the room with heat – he did warn me that we’d need to top it up every once in a while, to ensure the whole thing worked.

For my part, I was confused as to how that was an enchantment, and not a ward, but when Ivy’s dad tried to explain, it just left me more confused.

For my intents and purposes, though, it worked. That was all I needed.

While they worked, Kene clearly started to get restless, so we left them working on the specifics to grab lunch at a cute bistro nearby. I got a half a turkey reuben sandwich, and a bowl of soup, while Kene got themself a breadbowl, and we both watched the frinx who was wandering the bistro.

I hadn’t encountered one of the strange frog, human, sphinx creatures in quite a while, last time having been on the steps of the library.

The frinx hopped up to us, looked at me, and asked.

“Why is it the soup or sandwich? Surely a super sandwich would be better?”

“Do all frinxes like sandwiches?” I asked. The other frinx I’d met had asked me about them too.

“Or do sandwiches like frinxes?” Kene asked. “Are finxes sandwiches?”

The frinx let out a ribbity-laugh, and hopped away.

I studied Kene for a moment.

“I’m sorry to drag you into so much stuff,” I said. “I know you had a fairly peaceful lif–”

Kene let out a barking laugh and shook his head.

“Peaceful? No. Well, sure, technically it was. But it was stagnant. I’d almost given up. You wandering into town was the best thing that’s happened to me in… Maybe ever. I had an apprenticeship with my grandmother, but that was just as much confusing as it was good. And… By the time you wandered into town, I’d more or less decided that I was just going to live out as long as I could until my legacy caught up with me. Hope I’d done more good than harm by the time I was gone.”

They reached out and took my hand.

“Now? Not only do I have someone who brings me into wild, fun – albeit a little scary – scenarios with a degree of regularity I can only describe as shocking, but I have hope that there might actually be a way out that isn’t just putting things off.”

Kene smiled at me.

“You seem to have dragged yourself into a fairy tale where you’re saving dragons, dueling werewolves, delving into the realms of dead master magicians, and…”

They shook their head and sighed, but their smile was still there.

“Primes, Malachi. It sounds crazy when I say it like that, but… I’m so glad I met you.”

“Thank you,” I said. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you sound all that much crazier. A legacy that doomed you to be consumed from the soul outwards, liberated from your terrible parents by a witch who’s haunted your family for generations who taught you the ancient ways of witchcraft. I got where I was through luck, but you’ve worked a lot harder than I have, as far as I’m concerned.”

“It does sound pretty crazy when you put it like that,” Kene admitted. “But it’s… just life. I don’t think I’ve worked a lot harder than you have.”

We talked for a while longer, before we decided to return to the enchanters, only to find Azalea waiting for us. She gave us a won smile as we approached.

“Are you two ready, then?” she asked. “Dusk has been ready since I arrived.”

I glanced at Kene, and we both nodded. Dusk called out from the counter, showing off her new necklace, which hid her magic. I walked over and scooped her up, then put her on my shoulder.

“Where’s Ivy?” I asked.

“School,” Azalea said. “It’ll just be the four of us, I’m afraid. Before I take us there, you should take your defensive spells as well. You both have life mana, correct?”

“Right,” I said.

“You two should layer it around you in a shroud,” she said. “The mountain is covered in a few Painted Prince Acridoth flowers. We won’t be going into the territory of the flowers themselves, but the Acridoth Spit-Birds could still spit at you.”

I started releasing the mana, while Kene bit his lip. He was also doing the same, though in a slightly more advanced version of the technique, probably something he’d learned from his grandmother.

“I kinda want to try and harvest some of the flowers…”

“Bad idea,” Azalea said. “I’m not going to risk it. If you want to harvest fourth gate murder flowers, do it on your own time. Not on mine.”

“Fine, fine,” Kene said, picking their hat up off the table and tossing me my pin. It hadn’t been overcharged yet, but some defenses were better than nothing.

Azalea held her hand out, and we linked into a circle, then blazing green light soaked out of the floorboard.

Instantly we were standing in front of a towering ancient oak tree, but light was blazing again and we were in front of a squat old willow tree.

Light blazed again, and we hopped to another tree.

As we moved, I noticed how different this… tree-walking? I didn’t know the spell name… felt from shadowstepping.

Shadowstepping felt like being locked in cement, but tree-walking felt like… Hopping. Almost like how foxstepping felt like I was running across the distance it covered, tree-walking felt like jumping from place to place, over large distances.

We finally landed under the boughs of an ash tree, standing atop a mountain. In the distance, I could see the city of Teffordshire, miles away from the mountain range, the watery marshes that it was built over giving this mountain far more of a muddy feel than the stone and ice I was used to.

“This way,” Azalea said, while Kene leaned over and vomited in a bush. She paused and gave them a sympathetic look. “Teleporting can be hard on the stomach.”

“I’ll be fine,” they said, rifling around in their satchel and removing a pill. They popped it into their mouth. “I’ve just never teleported like that before.”

Once Kene had recovered, Azalea began marching up the mountain once again, and we followed.

Given that they were called mantle dragons, I expected to be led to a gaping maw of lava, but instead we arrived at the shores of a small lake. Steam rose off the surface of the lake, probably heated by thermal vents.

Then my mana senses picked up on a spike of powerful death mana firing right at me.