“I must say, I’ve never had a dragon come to me for help before,” a calm yet strong voice said. I stiffened and whirled around.

I was standing in a garden, with the scent of fresh sunlight, flowers, and wheat filling my nose. But that didn’t make any sense. I’d gone with Jackson to his church, and then.

My eyes settled on the being I could only assume was a god. I couldn’t sense his power, but he seemed to be exactly the same as the rest of his realm, fresh and bright. He looked to be in his early thirties, younger than some of the paintings the church had held, but unmistakably the same man.

“Effervesce, I presume?” I asked.

“Indeed. And you would be Emrys of White Sands, sometimes called Anders Velcer, Emrys Dreki, Alastor Sinclair, and several other names.”

I stepped forward and felt… Strange. Unnaturally balanced and surefooted, which was really saying something.

“I am. Why did you give me an audience?”

“Because Jackson Uyer wished for me to, and because I am no ally to the family you wish to be unchained from,” the god said. “Shall we go in for tea? I had put the kettle on before you came.”

I nodded and followed the deity into the cottage. It was small, wooden, and homey. Cozy and cute, and nothing like the divine domain I would have expected most gods to have crafted.

“Do you like it?” Effervesce asked, opening a cabinet and removing a small box of tea bags, then two cups. “I modeled it after the home I grew up in, when I was alive.”

He poured water over the tea bags, then used the rest to douse the small fire in the oven.

“Sit, sit,” he said, gesturing to the small wooden table. I only then realized I’d been standing there, staring at him.

I sat and took the cup of tea from him.

“I suppose this is the part where you offer me phenomenal power if I just devote my life to your clergy, instead of my family?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think that arrangement would suit either of us,” Effervesce said, laughing ever so slightly. “For one, you have almost no faith at all.”

“I believe you exist. That you’re strong, much stronger than I am. After all, you managed to meld your soul with Etherius itself.”

“Exactly,” Effervesce said gently. “You respect my power, but you don’t have faith in me or my creed. You would not trust me to catch you if you fell. It is a trait that many who wield power of their own possess.”

He began tracing the rim of his mug with a finger.

“You likely agree with many of the rules of my creed, in truth. Standing up for what is right, protecting the innocent, and being that which leads others to redemption are my three tenants. But could you devote your life to those ideals? To trust me to have your back in good times, as well as bad, and to trust that if I’m not giving you the divine power you need, there is a reason? I want you to be honest. If I have misjudged you, and you can do this, then I would gladly accept you into my clergy.”

I swallowed thickly, then took a sip of the tea.

“No,” I admitted. “I think, in my heart, I would still rely on myself. And I don’t think if my mother asked for redemption, that I could give it to her.”

The deity gave me a sad, gentle smile.

“That is about what I expected. But I had to try, for both your sake and for Jackson’s.”

He took a long sip of tea, then put it down.

“Let’s discuss what I can do for you, then. I’m limited by my own rules, my creed, and the rules of the gods as laid down by Magyk, but I can still do some things.

I noted that the rules of the gods were apparently a thing. It wasn’t too shocking, but it was nice to hear at least.

“I have three possible routes, but I can only truly give you one of them, as per the rules. The first is the weakest, but it has no strings attached. I can grant you a small boon to make your spells related to light magic a bit stronger. It won’t be much, but it will be there. One or two, perhaps three, percent more effective if the boon takes well.”

“What’s the hidden cost?” I asked skeptically.

“For you, none. Jackson’s grown enough for me to expand his own powers, but he has asked me to intercede on your behalf, so instead of strengthening him, I will create a weak, permanent boon for you. The conversion to one with no faith is what makes this so weak. More than a full order of magnitude worth of strength is lost.”

“What’s the second option?”

I would feel pretty bad taking power Jackson had earned away, but I did need it. I would at least hear the other options out, though.

“I have some command over fire. As an action taken to oppose the desecration of Jackson’s home temple, I can give you a single use blessing that will restore your fire to full. It can only be used against the Dreki family, you must abide by my creed while you use the extra power, and you would need to sacrifice a swan feather as a component.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I nodded slowly. That was considerable, and could be a good ace up my sleeve. Shé Rui’s words about trickery being a useful tool came back to me.

“The last option is… extreme, but I value honesty, so I will offer it. You don’t have faith to offer. But you do have a bloodline. I could consume it, leaving you with nothing but the embers, and use it to bestow several divine boons and blessings. I could do the same with your ether pool too, if you wished.”

He sighed.

“I could give you a great deal of power. If you were to have blessings meant for combat against Gerhard specifically, you would be all but guaranteed victory. The leftover boons would give you some abilities to heal and conjure fire, but… I tell you this option only as a part of my creed. I do not recommend you sacrifice the future for a momentary advantage.”

“I agree,” I said. “A point of clarity. The second is due to their desecration of a temple, so Jackson would still gain the power you intended to award him?”

“Some was already lost to arrange this meeting, but yes. He could use it as he saw fit – improve his soulfire, his healing, or accept it as a light magic bolstering boon.”

“Let him have what he’s earned,” I said. “I’ll act as your conduit for revenge on the material plane.”

“Not revenge. Balancing. The second option, then?”

“Yes.”

I felt power rush into me and it took an active effort to not push it away. I understood on a soul deep level that this wasn’t my power, and that the being granting it to me was far too great and terrible.

It formed loops around my fire, stretching all the way up to the top of my head, where it glowed like a crown before fading.

Then the might and power retracted, leaving only the viscerally wrong feeling of having a part of someone, no, something else inside of me. And not in the fun way, either.

I shuddered, then drained my teacup dry.

“Thank you for the tea, and the help you could offer,” I said.

“I am only sorry I cannot do more.”

Then I woke up. Jackson had his hand on my shoulder, and he smiled.

“I’m glad it went well.”

I nodded stupidly, then looked around. The church was mostly empty.

“It’s only been a few minutes,” Jackson said. “How do you feel?”

“Terrible. I… How do you deal with it, Jackson? The feeling of a boot hovering over an ant, only it’s inside of you, like those demonic fungi that possess people.”

I shuddered and Jackson squeezed my shoulder.

“I don’t see it that way. I see it as more like hiking a mountain range. The mountains are far vaster than I, and they only let me see a tiny sliver of more. But it’s a beautiful thing. To know that I’m surrounded by the vastness of Effervesce, and that the hiking trail continues on. That even if I am to die, I will nourish the plants and become one with the mountains, rather than simply dying alone and empty.”

On a purely intellectual level, I understood what he was saying. I could see how that might be reassuring and stable.

But on an emotional level? It simply didn’t make sense.

“Thank you for your help,” I said instead, not voicing the worry and fear inside of me. I bowed to Jackson, then to the shrine, and left. It was rude, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what else to do. Even though it was a waste of precious time, I collapsed into bed and slept, only waking up in the evening to continue my ritual.

By the following morning, the sensation of something else in my spirit was starting to fade, though I wasn’t sure that was exactly correct. Perhaps I was simply learning to live with it. I’d lived with being trapped in the wrong flesh before, and this was different, but not so different that I couldn’t learn to cope with it.

I let a bit of excitement run through me as I stepped out of bed. I only had one day left until my ritual was completed. I also needed to swing by the Charm and Fable to meet with Charm, work on the massage technique, practice the three spells for Abjuration, write a report, and more.

I let out a groan as I waffled back and forth, deciding what to do, then set off towards the Charm and Fable, only to find Charm was out.

“He should be in tomorrow morning,” Fable told me.

“I thought you said he hated opening?”

“He does. That’s why we’re hiring.”

Fable and I made a bit of small talk before I headed back to the university to work.

First came the massage. Getting three leaves was due by Tuesday, after all, so I needed to work on getting that done most of all. Plus, if I actually learned the technique to improve my ether pool’s recovery rate, it would help everything else.

I sent my ether into the little tree, over and over again, following the paths that had been laid out within it. I pressed firmly in some places, softly in others, and medium in yet others.

One light lit up. I continued to follow the path, pressing and folding and turning.

A second light lit up.

I pushed my ether forwards, massaging the pathways within the device. A third light flickered on and off, before I pressed too hard.

I let go and started again, and to my surprise, found that this was… Fun.

With each repetition, I was able to get the third light to hold longer. Before I knew it, I’d lit it firmly and was working on a fourth. A part of me suggested I give up now, since I’d met the assignment, but…

My stomach rumbled.

I was hungry. I wanted good food.

A fourth light. Then a fifth, and a sixth.

I hit a wall at the sixth, unable to get the seventh light to turn green at all. I didn’t turn it red, but it was slippery, eluding my current ability.

My stomach rumbled again, and I looked up. I was hungry – I’d skipped lunch. It wasn’t just a metaphorical hunger.

Whoops.

I slipped out towards the cafeteria, conjuring tiny weirlights to work on improving my shaping skills as I walked, while mentally going over the summon gadhar spell, as well as the summon stone cantrip. I could see how many of the parts of each were similar, and different, and I started to mentally compose my essay for class about it.

I ate a late lunch then went back to my room. I drained my fire dry with a lick of dragon’s breath, then exploded the ether in my pool until I couldn’t any more. With that done, I worked on my essay until I was able to work on casting, spent my ether on that, and read through my grimoire while I worked on dinner.

The following morning, I rose and excitedly flipped through my grimoire to the right page. I began to trace my fingers in the air, making the delicate gestures that the book demonstrated. I began a low, rumbling chant of words of power, and unwrapped the old bandages that I’d used to hold the blood symbol, copper, and ether crystal in place.

Moving carefully, I washed the blood symbol off with a small amount of water, collecting the bloody water in a bowl that I’d pilfered from the cafeteria’s porridge. Then, I unwound the copper wire from its shape and lowered it inch by inch into the bowl. The bowl transformed from a ruddy liquid to a shimmering green. Lastly, I dropped the ether crystal in, along with a spike of my fire and ether.

“Cordis. Radix. Canalis!”

Power rippled down my spirit, sinking from my ether pool and into my dragonfire. It touched, and I felt it rush up.

A channel between them had opened, but a strange one. I tapped into my dragonfire and shot across the room with a burst of speed. Nothing seemed different, and trying to fuel my bloodline with ether did nothing.

I raised my hands and chanted out an arcane missile spell, and.

Yes.

This time, I felt it. As my ether pool drained into the spell array and formed it, I felt my spirit open the channel and allow me to pour dragonfire into the spell.

Though I was tempted, I stopped and let the ether slide back into my spirit. I picked up the map, glancing it over, then made my way off to an outdoor arena where combat spell practice was held.

How annoying.