“I think it’s time I asked more questions about the death of my brother.” Janice sat behind her desk, her hands folded and resting on her chin, glaring daggers at Master. The two of us stood in front of the desk, and any time I moved, her eyes moved to me before going back to my owner.
His lips tight, Master gave a slow nod. “I suppose seeing first-hand evidence of the afterlife is bound to raise such concerns. But… The way he died, in a Storm… I wish I could be of more comfort.”
Janice responded by taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, letting it out in a long sigh and opening them again. “The official report was that he died in a Storm, yes. One that just so happened to have appeared in a building, lasted a few minutes, and vanished. Taking all evidence with it.”
I didn’t like that wording. The tension was already so thick, you could cut it with a knife, and I couldn’t keep it from my voice. “What are you trying to say, Janice?”
The eyes were back on me, and they weren’t moving away. I shivered, trying to get rid of the feeling of my scales standing on end. It wasn’t actually a thing, of course, but in that moment it sure felt like it was. “I’m saying that the official report is all I have to go on, so far. You two have refused to talk about it. So has Ms. Brown. So has that Cheryl girl. Everyone else shrugs, but is fine repeating the Storm version of events. So it seems to me that there is something I’m not being told. About the death of my little brother.” Her voice had gone cold as ice the more she talked.
Master’s breath was stressed, one step short of an actual growl. His lips actually parted for a moment, but he looked away when he realized it was happening, his tail lashing. “If you’re going to accuse me of something, just say it. I can’t defend myself against accusations you won’t tell me.”
Janice’s hands slammed down on the desk, standing up so fast her chair tipped over. “You must have the biggest fucking balls in the world, to talk to me like that!”
With a snarl and a half-step forward, Master shot back. “Actually, they’re internal right now, but YOU wanted to talk instead of letting me try to get that taken care of. Except you’re talking AROUND what you want to say, instead of saying it! What? You’re saying I killed him, made it look like an accident? That I faked the Storm?”
I didn’t know what to do. I was pretty sure Master wouldn’t actually attack, but he’d been getting increasingly irritable the further his changes progressed. Probably stress, though I couldn’t help but think of his behavior lately as… animalistic. And Janice didn’t have that excuse for her anger. What was going through her mind?
She was struggling to keep her breathing even, her teeth clenched as she glared back at the dragon-tainted mage. “Fine. You’re right. I need to say it. I think you murdered my brother. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t kill him? Over some kind of dispute about magic?”
Master flinched at that, the rising fury cooling into a cold anger, though his tail continued to swing. Just before Janice was about to talk, he finally spoke. “He did die to a Storm, it’s true. We watched him dissolve before our eyes, before it erupted within his body, destroying him from the inside out. It was… horrific, to say the least. I didn’t murder him, but… he did die in a fight against us. He wanted to OWN me, own Princess, own all magic in the city. In the world. We fought, and he was struggling to keep his wards active. I tried to reason with him, tell him to surrender, but he wouldn’t. And he…” He bit his lip, struggling to get that anger under control so he could speak honestly and truthfully, but still have some tact towards the grieving woman.
So I tried to take over. “He tried to channel the raw power of the Chaos Void directly. But it was too much. It broke his body apart. That scream, when he realized what was happening… B-but Master, he tried to save him! Tried to tell him to stop, tried to warn him! It’s not his fault!”
Shooting me a glance, he nodded. Sighing heavily before he continued, the anger and bitterness in his voice started to ease up. “Indirectly, though, you could say I am responsible for his death. But I didn’t ‘murder’ him. However he was when you knew him, I doubt he was still the same man in the end. He may have met his end that night, but I imagine you lost ‘your brother’ long ago. And after what Hermes was saying, I fear… I fear he might not have had a chance to make it to any Realm. Souls in the Void are broken down, lost in the… well, everything. I’m sorry, Janice. I truly am.”
While Master had been talking, Janice also lost her anger. It was hard to keep it in the face of the earnestness in his voice. It took her some time to get words past her throat. “You… Thank you. I’m sorry I came at you like that, it just… You didn’t say it when we first met, and then I tried asking around only to get people acting weird about it, and…” She raised a hand, gesturing from side to side with it. “And when I couldn’t get a straight answer, I knew there was something being hidden from me, and all I could think of was that you were… That you had… Thank you for being honest.”
Janice turned around to pick her chair back up, sitting in it and slumping. Master nodded, letting out a sigh. “No, I understand. I didn’t say it at first because, well, I guess it was a bit of cowardice. How do you come out and say something like this to a man’s sister? Not to mention having to relive that night. But it wasn’t fair to you. And after a while, I assumed you had either been told, or figured it out. Or at least, come to the decision that it was something we didn’t discuss.” He pulled a chair over and went to sit down, but the tail got in the way, the arms of the chair making it impossible to get comfortable. So he opted to stand instead. “I’m so sorry, though. I wish I could give you better news. I could try asking Hermes if he might have a way to find him, just in case he did make it somewhere? Have him ask the others he mentioned, like Anubis? Maybe if he did reach some place of safety, he could have reflected on his path and come to his senses.”
At that, Janice looked up, her face looking haggard. “No. There’s no need. I already know where he is.”
Both Master and I were surprised by that. I couldn’t help but blurt out, “You think he was taken? By Horgust?” I tried to think back to our trip through that place. I was pretty sure the wandering soul we ran into wasn’t him, but maybe he looked different without his body? Some kind of internal self-image? Or maybe Augustine had gotten some plastic surgery, and that’s how Janice recognized him?
Clenching her jaw, she looked us both over before replying. “Frankie’s Candy Shoppe. I used to go there all the time as a child. With my brother. Back before he let himself be twisted by jealousy, our mother would give us a small allowance at the end of each month, once all the bills were paid. And we would almost always go straight there, picking out treats that we’d say we’d ration out, but they never lasted a week.” She smiled faintly, eyes staring into the distance, but the smile faded quickly. “Horgust’s Realm was a copy of the town, with that candy shop. And a castle in the center. And he says the town is his.”
My eyes went wide. “No…”
“Yes. Horgust didn’t take my brother. Horgust IS my brother.”
Master was just as shaken as me. Under his breath, I heard him say, “Horgust. Horace Augustine. HOR-ace Au-GUST-ine. Son of a…!”
It felt like a lifetime ago since my paws had walked upon the stone floor of the Mage’s Guild of Winselton. It hadn’t even been two weeks, but it was before the ogres, before the Storm, before Horgust and Hermes and everything else. But with the destruction of the anchor thingie in Horgust’s Realm, the interference between Earth and Terra was finally cleared and travel was possible again. I stepped away from the mirror so Master could come through, moving over to greet Dweli with a wag of my tail.
When he did enter the room, it drew startled gasps from the mages present. Master Korrigan covered his mouth with a hand, but Professor Elwarn didn’t stop himself from shouting. “I’ll be a harpy’s brother! M-Mage Tola, you… I thought you said a tail, not… all this!”
Master gave a pained sigh and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. Last time we talked, it WAS just a tail. It’s getting worse. And using magic makes it progress faster. You see why I need this taken care of yesterday.”
Dweli was similarly speechless, eyeing the new additions to his body and glancing down at me. “I have to say, when you asked for books about this, I didn’t think you were being serious. …Does it hurt?”
“It hurts when I use magic, but just having the parts? No. Does make clothing awkward, though. Pretty sure I got the start of a wing going under this shirt.” He rolled his shoulders in a circle and made a face that said he found it unpleasant.
“Did I miss ‘im?” The gruff voice of Artificer Botolf came from the hallway, moments before he rounded the corner, stopping in his tracks at the sight. “Holy hell, almost shat a Roc’s egg, man!” He didn’t say anything after that, just continued to stare for what felt like a full minute. Just as suddenly, he let out his “harumph” noise, shrugged, and then went back to acting as if nothing at all had happened and everything was normal. Simply leaned against a wall, nodding a wordless greeting.
Tola’s face was flat with a slight grimace spreading across his lips, forcing himself to not snap at the reception he was getting. “Yeah. Great.” Turning to Master Korrigan, he let out a sigh before continuing. “Now, how do we go about solving this? I figure I’ll need a work room of some kind. Perhaps an assistant of some kind that I can send on errands, so I can minimize, well… this.” With that last part, he gestured towards Botolf and rolled his eyes.
The headmaster spoke dryly. “And greetings to you too, Mage Tola. Pleased to see your safe return to our Guild, and our world.” Looking him up and down, he sarcastically added, “As much as it strains the word ‘safe’.”
“Ugh, yes, greetings and the rest of the formalities.” Master’s tail was lashing, and he couldn’t keep all of that frustration out of his voice.
“However, this matter you mentioned, ‘Horgust’… You say this person claims to be a god, and has power over the Chaos Storms. Am I correct?”
Gritting his teeth, Master let a low growl rumble in the back of his throat. “Really? We’re doing this now? This can’t possibly wait until I’m restored, or at least while we’re making progress on that?”
Korrigan narrowed his eyes at the impertinent tone. “Mage Tola, I understand that being from another world, you are unaccustomed to how to properly conduct yourself in the presence of a Grand Master Mage. So I will be lenient, and overlook this outburst, but I will not allow my Guild to come under attack by a force we know so little about.”
Master grimaced, clearly wanting to say something far worse than he’d said so far, but he took a deep breath and exhaled. Even with that moment, his voice still had more vitriol than he likely intended. “You’re right, I am ‘unaccustomed’ to being part of a Guild. Even with the looming threat, my patience has been much thinner than it should be. Please accept my apologies for snapping at you.” Lashing his tail, he flexed the clawed hand and relaxed it. “Well, how about I promise to tell you about our visit to this Realm of his, while we get a work space set up? I want to get this fixed before it’s too late.”
That seemed to please Korrigan. Dweli, however, grew worried. “How fast has it been progressing, to feel this kind of pressure?”
“Fast enough that I don’t like my chances of curing a never-before-seen condition by finding and piecing together tiny slivers of applicable research that may or may not even be in the Guild’s library. It’s likely to be an unfathomably enormous task, and now I have a deadline approaching and I don’t even know how long I have before it passes. My hope is that by not using any magic at all, I can give myself as much time as possible, but I don’t have forever.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, once-before-seen, kinda. If you count me. Maybe that’s why this happened, because of… You know, my past.” My head dipped low, tail curled around my paws, hunching a bit to shrink myself. Trying to match how small I felt, in a room full of powerful mages, and being the source of the crisis we faced.
Dweli turned to Korrigan. “I’d like to take the lead in assisting them, sir. My expertise in magical creatures, as well as… other experience, should prove useful in this. I think I have some ideas on where to start looking for information.”
“Very well. I shall make the necessary arrangements at once.” The head mage nodded at his proclamation. “It… might be best if Mage Tola limits his public appearances, as best he can.”
For a moment, I pictured Master wearing an illusion collar similar to mine. Of course, it would be a terrible idea, since it would mean channeling magic and thus exacerbating his condition. But mostly, I felt guilty at how much I liked the idea of him wearing something like a black band, perhaps with spikes to make it look even more powerful. I quickly stood up in an attempt to disguise the slight squirm it sent through my spine, grateful that my scales would cover my blush.
Master had been right about the wing. Three days after our arrival at the guild, and extensive recountings of events to Korrigan and the others, he was pacing back and forth in the workshop we had requisitioned for this project. It was in the same building as the one we had used to house my eggs and hatchlings, so long ago. And also the same building as the one Roffil had used for his trap that sent us to Earth. I wondered if Master had noticed. Unwilling to go topless, he still wore a shirt, but now it had been cut in the back to allow the small wing to poke through. While it helped, it was clear he was still bothered by the sensations. Especially when he forgot about it, and leaned back in a chair. Not that I blamed him for his startled shout each time it happened, since I wouldn’t like crushing my wing against a hard surface either.
“Dweli, a moment? I’ve… ugh. The second wing is too big to ignore any longer. Can you please cut an opening for it?” Handing over his belt knife, he turned his back to the woman who was supposed to be our assistant, but was starting to feel like our jailer.
Deftly cutting a hole in the shirt, she marveled at the tiny wing, the limb only about six inches long. “This is so fascinating. How much can you move it?”
Frowning, Master obediently flexed the muscles in it, making it stretch out. I reflexively rustled my own, the sight making me conscious of my anatomy. Like trying to find a comfortable place to rest your tongue inside your mouth once you were thinking about it, or like seeing someone else yawn. “I don’t think I’m going to be flying any time soon. At least I hope I’m not…”
A knock at the door interrupted that unpleasant thought. As usual, Master moved behind a hanging curtain while Dweli answered it, opening the door as little as possible. The courier, also as usual, kept trying to peek through the cracked doorway, eager to get a glimpse of whatever was going on. I couldn’t blame him, the secrecy and hush-hush nature of our work made this an irresistible mystery to the Initiates and the others not in the upper circles. But Dweli was an expert at not answering his prying questions, so with his package delivered, he left empty-handed in more ways than one. Well, except for the generous tip of copper coins Dweli gave for his service, like always.
Master came back out from behind the curtain. “What’cha got?” I was similarly eager to find out, but I contented myself with sniffing the cloth-wrapped package. It wasn’t surprising that it smelled like old books, paper bound in leather.
Dweli grinned as she set the bundle down on a table, undoing the cord that was tied around it. “This… is what I sent off for the first day. Perhaps one of the best hopes we have of resolving this. Journals describing research into transformation magic, especially the potential for permanent changes.” Her smile fell as she picked up the first book, her eyes on the cover, but clearly lost in painful memory. “The research was deemed unethical, and these journals have been in the forbidden section since. The mage who had been doing the research… did not take the decision well. It wasn’t the first sign that there was something wrong, and sadly we didn’t heed this one either. I’ve been trying to petition for access to these books for years…”
Raising his eyebrows, Master reached for one, but hesitated. “If they don’t officially exist, and you didn’t have clearance, how did you even know about them to begin with? And why did you want them so badly?”
She delayed before answering, frowning as she worked up the courage to speak. “Because… these are the journals confiscated from Elimaio, as he was expelled from the Guild. I hoped to find a reason he turned on me, on the Guild, the way he did.”
I exchanged a worried glance with Master at the name. It brought up a lot of unpleasant memories, after all. “You think there’s something in there that will help Master, though?”
Nodding, she opened the first one and started skimming through the pages. “Elimaio, for all his… eccentricities, was our premier expert on transformations. He had theories about ways to affect the soul itself, but we dismissed them at the time. After he left, I did some research on the matter myself to help fill the void. And also hoping I might be able to understand him better.” She stopped suddenly, frowning at the page she was looking over, her expression turning to one of being sickened. “Oh, Elly, no…”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Master snorted air through his nose, the blunt draconic snout bearing little resemblance to his old face. “Find something useful?”
“Not yet… I had my suspicions, even then, but here he’s talking about using Dragon Scale. Damn it all, he lied to me! Why?” Her voice wavered with emotion, but she continued reading, biting her lip.
“Great, gossip, the perfect thing to restore my humanity.” Rolling his eyes, Master started to pace, grumbling and throwing glares at objects in the room.
I trotted over to his side and matched his pace. “Hey now, this isn’t easy on her either. She loved him, and now she’s reading proof of his betrayal. This is a tender wound she’s clawing open, just to help us.”
He rolled his eyes, but his tense pose softened a bit. “She’s been wanting to go through these books for years, she would’ve done this with or without us.”
“Perhaps, but she would be going slower if it was just her investigation. Instead, she’s plowing through it. Can’t you… I dunno, be a little less… grumpy? At least towards the person doing the most for us?”
He huffed again, growling for a moment. Turning on his heel, he walked briskly away from me, going to a wall so he could rest his forehead on the cool stone. “Dweli. I’m… I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be like this, it’s just… There’s this… I don’t even know how to put it. Ever since this started, I’ve been feeling restless, frustrated… It’s all I can do to keep from lashing out, physically as well as verbally.”
The professor nodded, even though Master had his back to her. “I can’t imagine this is easy for you. Every day bringing more questions and fewer answers. You’ve been under tremendous stress, between this Horgust nightmare, as well as…” She let it trail off, unable to think of a polite way to refer to the draconification. “But you’re here, and none of us are going to stop at anything to help you out. That’s the whole point of a Guild, for members to help each other. And not just that, but… friends. You’re my friend, and I want to help you. No matter how grumpy you get.” Her smile came through in her tone, and it seemed to help get through to him.
He raised his left arm, the one that was still human, and used it as a cushion between his forehead and the wall. His right, he brought up so he could stare at the claws and the scales that covered the entire arm. “Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that. I know I should be more patient, but it’s like… an itch, any time I’m not DOING something! And every time I tell myself I should relax, all I can think is, ‘How much longer before it’s too late?’ Already, I can barely use this. It’s more paw than hand. What if I pass some kind of ‘point of no return’, some threshold that makes reversing this impossible? What if me relaxing for a day is what makes the difference between a cure, and a life on all fours?”
I hunched my shoulders, looking away because I couldn’t bear to look at him. “I should have… said no. I shouldn’t have agreed to mix energies with you. We could’ve found another way, maybe let Roffil lend you his strength, a-and maybe I could’ve powered his Echo Device.”
Dweli knelt down, resting a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t know if that would’ve worked. When mages combine their efforts, the spell has to be specially crafted for each to be powering different parts, or be able to accommodate the flows without mixing them. I’ve never heard of two mages being able to actually ‘share energy’ like that. They’d have to have… such an incredible close bond, any disharmony creates interference that stops the flow dead.”
Master snorted again, growling. “Roffil is nothing BUT disharmony. That arrogant little brat, I just want to bite his throat every time he talks. I don’t know how he does it, but every word just makes me hate him more. I thought it’d be better with him treating me with respect, but he manages to make me feel… oily, whenever he praises me.”
I let out a soft whine. “But still! Because of me, you’re… losing everything! I know how hard that is…”
“Yeah, you–” Master stiffened, like he’d been hit in the chest. Finally pulling away from the wall, he looked at me, stunned by what I said. “Oh… Oh, Princess… I’m…” Closing his eyes, he covered his face with his left palm, dragging it back down as he looked up at the ceiling, pained. “No wonder you’ve been kicking yourself so hard. I’ve been trying to say it’s not your fault, but that’s not all of it, is it? I’ve been whining and moaning about this, and you…” Kneeling down in front of me, he gave me a warm smile as he looked into my eyes. “You know, I honestly forget you didn’t hatch from an egg, girl. I know you didn’t, but it just doesn’t… I don’t know. You’re so natural as a dragon, I can hardly imagine you being anything else.”
It was nice, seeing him be gentle and kind again. I couldn’t help but blush a little, my tail wagging. It felt like a reassurance that my Master was still in there, underneath everything that was happening. But then my eyes drifted down to the muzzle, and from there to his arm and clawed hand, and the warmth I felt turned cold. “I… I can’t really… imagine being anything else either. But that’s me. You don’t want this, I know you don’t. It’s not… fair!” Emotion threatened to cut off my words, but I forced myself to speak, even though I had to stare at the floor to do it. “I th-thought the whole reason I got stuck with this was because… Because I had a soul that could… break. I let it in, I f-failed to resist… I doomed myself to this… But you’re suffering this because of me! You don’t deserve to have your humanity stripped from you! You’re BETTER than this! Than me!”
The pain in my voice twisted the knife in his heart, his arms wrapped around my neck as he pulled me in for a tight hug. “No, Princess, no… It’s not… It’s not a matter of ‘better’, or ‘deserve’, or whatever. It’s… Oh, man, how to put this into words?” I felt warm tears drip onto my shoulder. “I don’t know what you were like before, or if there’s even a difference, but I’ve never thought less of you for being a dragon. You are wonderful, girl. You’re better than pretty much every human I know. Sometimes, I feel like you’re a better person than even me. And if you can handle being a dragon, and be so happy like this, then… then I can learn to be happy too, if I have to.”
I couldn’t cry like he could, but I could sniffle. “I don’t know if I could… call what I did ‘learning to be happy’. I just… was. And…” My tail curled around myself as I started trying to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. “And the fact that I wasn’t upset, that I didn’t feel like this was some horrible fate? But you, a-and everyone else… There really IS something wrong with me, isn’t there?”
“What? No! There’s nothing wrong with you, girl. It’s just… You’re better at looking at the bright side of things, I guess?” He wasn’t letting me go so easily, moving in to keep me from getting away. “There’s nothing WRONG with you, just because you’re happy this way. It just makes you special, not everyone could handle being a pet like you.”
I had stopped fighting the hug, both because I knew it was pointless, and because it was something I really did want even if I didn’t feel like I deserved it. Master’s scent and warmth was so nice, I felt like I couldn’t get enough. But the words dug at my thoughts, feeling so odd, yet it was hard to put a paw directly on it. Something about the way it was phrased… “They couldn’t? Because of pride? Or because… of how society always says being independent is good?”
Master pulled back a little so he could look at me, confusion on his face. “Because… most people don’t want to… be owned?” It made me feel silly, the way he was stating it like such a basic, universal fact.
Which only made it more confusing. “They don’t? But… I can’t even count the number of times I’ve heard someone say, ‘I wish I had your life’ to a dog or a cat. Nobody even acts like it’s a weird thing to say.”
“Yeah. They mean, you know, no responsibilities, no worries, no work, just a life of luxury. Someone waiting on them hand and foot, and they don’t have to do anything for it.” The look on his face, one that said “How did you not know this?” was making me uncomfortable.
I shook my head. “But that doesn’t make sense. Being a pet is a huge responsibility! You have to be ready to do whatever it takes to help, be ready to follow your Owner’s lead, even orders… But you get to love and be loved, you get a purpose, by devoting yourself to an Owner that takes care of you?” I tried looking to Dweli for backup on this, but she looked just as confused as Master. “Neither of you ever… seriously thought about this?”
Dweli shrugged. “I never really thought a pet liked obeying. They just did it because they had no choice.”
Master was fighting an amused smile. “You’re saying that the devotion IS the reward, for you? You don’t see any downside?”
Embarrassment burned at my cheeks, my tail lashing behind me. “Th-there’s downsides! Like how difficult I make things for you, I hate that you have to go through so much just because of me. Every time we go out or deal with people… I cause nothing but trouble for you! And now you’re turning into a dragon because of me! How’s that not a downside?” I huffed, torn between shouting and crying, but this body couldn’t cry.
Unable to restrain himself, Master started laughing, sitting down on the floor so he wouldn’t have to kneel anymore. “Oh, Princess! You…! You really are the best girl ever, aren’t you? This whole time, I’ve been trying to figure out why you insisted on being a pet. I thought I’d never really understand it, why you were so… content to settle for it. But really, it’s just… who you are inside. It’s not settling, it’s… fulfilling!”
I arched my back, wings spread as I snarled. “Why are you laughing at me?” It hurt, all I could think of was how betrayed I felt.
The pose and tone shocked both of them, with Master caught completely by surprise and having to process my reaction. “No, no, girl. I’m laughing at myself! I’ve been trying to apply my own thinking to you all this time, instead of just… I don’t even know how to put it. My own desires and priorities. That’s why I didn’t understand, I took it for granted that how I felt was how you felt too.” He held his arms out, beckoning me to come in for another hug. I hesitated, but I couldn’t really stay mad at him, so I did. “Those downsides, though… They’re other people, they’re circumstances, they’re not related to actually being a pet. Have you really always felt this way?”
I closed my eyes as he ran his hands along my scales, petting along my neck and back. The hesitation that had kept me stiff melted, and I let out a rumbling purr. “I mean… yeah? I didn’t really think about it until we’d been together for a while, but I remember having daydreams about it, back on Earth. I’d see stuff online, of… people in, y’know, relationships, and… and I’d think, ‘They’re getting it all wrong.’ I mean, I was jealous, too, but…”
We stayed like that for a while. I didn’t even care about the way Dweli smiled at the sight. I was just happy to be with Master. He gave me a gentle squeeze after a minute or so. “I’m glad you’re happy, girl. It doesn’t matter what other people think or want, what matters is that this is something that you want. There’s nothing wrong with it, okay? I don’t… I wouldn’t be happy in your situation, but I don’t have to be a pet. Even if I end up a dragon, I can still be me. That’s what I should be focusing on. Things might change a little, but we can be together. It’ll be okay.”
I was still purring in his arms. But the talk of him being a dragon, well… My imagination was all to eager to fill with images of what that might be like. It made my tail lift a little, my forepaws curling a little against the stone floor. Master, too, was breathing a little heavily, but maybe that was just because of the sheer weight of the emotions we just went through.
Dweli cleared her throat. “You, uh, still want to try to find a cure, right? If we can?”
The sound of her voice seemed to cut through the inappropriate thoughts, and I quickly pulled back so I could compose myself. Master also stood up, and let out an “Oh God, yes. Uh, no offense, it’s just… Yeah.”
My gaze was cast downward, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see how flustered I was, or at least that he wouldn’t be able to guess why. “None taken, it’s… It’s not for everyone, the scaly life. I-I like you as a human, Master.”
Things didn’t really get less awkward for me. Every so often, I’d catch Master giving me a look, and my imagination ran with it. Increasingly elaborate scenarios would start building in my head, but almost all of them would lead to the same place: Master turning fully into a majestic dragon, and the two of us staying together. The circumstances would change each time, sometimes we’d be in the tower, sometimes we’d be in the guild, sometimes we’d both be adopted as Dweli’s pets… But I couldn’t really see Master being happy in any of them. The realities of such a situation always dampened them.
Meanwhile, Master was going over the journals with Dweli, but he wasn’t having an easy time of things. “Ugh, this stupid–… Sorry, I know you once loved him, but I only met him at his worst, and it’s hard to think charitably of him. Listen to this. ‘Every one of these cleansings leaves me missing a piece of myself. I’ve begun to think it’s taking more than just the buildup, the way it leaves me weakened. Why am I giving up power, like some Guild coward? I could be more, but I’m making myself less. No more! I’ve been too cautious, but I’ve already proved myself capable of handling what I’ve been using! Perhaps lesser mages are right to worry, but the thought of scouring my soul raw sickens me now. I refuse!’ Wait, this is dated after he was expelled and was living by Hammerfell. How does the Guild have it?”
Dweli rubbed her eyes. This project had turned into a lot of long nights and early mornings, but there was no telling where any useful information would be. “After Elly’s death, the Guild got the first say on what books of his to buy from the Crown. We were especially interested in journals detailing the research he was expelled for.”
Master nodded at first, but then stopped. “Wait, but I still have several of his journals. I read through them while I was first learning magic.”
That seemed to surprise Dweli. “I thought we had gotten them all. But then again, I think your Right of Conquest claim stopped the process of going through them. Was there anything in them that applies to your… condition?”
“No, by that point, they were little more than insane ramblings of paranoia. I knew he was doing experiments on transformation, including on Princess, but he mostly just complained about imagined spies from the Guild.” He looked over towards me as he mentioned my name, but I was curled up in the corner and only half listening.
Dweli didn’t miss the look. “Hm. …Is she distracting you?”
“What? No! The only distraction is this body. I’m normally right-handed, having to do everything with my left hand is frustrating.” His cheeks burned, however, only giving him away more. I couldn’t help but lift my head to watch the conversation.
Pursing her lips, the professor simply gave a “Mmm-hmm” noise. “Sure, nothing else is distracting you.”
I got up, stretched, curled my tail, and spread my wings. With a yawn, I padded closer. “Is something wrong?”
“No, girl. Dweli thinks you’re distracting me, but I can’t imagine why.” Even though he said it to me, he didn’t take his eyes off her, narrowing them slightly.
She paused, looking between the two of us. “I’m just saying, maybe I should ask Elwarn to watch over her for a bit. Or Yenny.” When that was met with confusion, she clarified. “Yenturan? Magister Yenturan. You’ve met him. Heck, he’s the one that was sent to evaluate you, before your first visit.”
I made a face at the memory. “Ugh, him. Pompous, stuffy, looks down his nose at any mage that isn’t trained by the guild.”
Dweli let out a soft laugh. “You just described about three quarters of the Guild, Princess. But yeah. Don’t call him ‘Yenny’, though. He hates it.”
Master raised an eyebrow. “So you do it to wind him up?”
She had a confused look on her face. “Huh? I do it because we’re dating, so I can get away with it. Anyone else, and he’ll get upset.”
“Now who’s distracting?” Master grinned, raising a book for emphasis.
That got her flustered. “Hey now, this was a minor diversion. I was just saying, I could get someone to watch over her a bit. Maybe have her play with her hatchlings?”
My tail flicked as I huffed. “What, so you can have my Master all to yourself? Why are you trying to get rid of me all of the sudden?” I was liking this less and less.
Master seemed to be of a similar opinion, trying to frown, but it made his changed mouth look more like it was baring a fang instead. “Princess stays, unless she chooses to leave. I’m not having her thrown out.”
Dweli’s expression turned more worried, but not scared. Finally, she crossed her arms and sighed. “I didn’t want to be rude and say this, but I’m pretty sure she’s in heat, and it’s affecting you, Tola.”
That shocked us both. I backed up a bit, tail lowering to tuck between my legs, while Master shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “H-heat? I’m… I’m not… Wait, do dragons have heat cycles?” I hadn’t really thought about it, I had believed I knew everything there was to being a dragon by this point.
She fixed me with a serious look. “Every year in the spring, yeah. Normally, when one’s laid a clutch, she won’t go into heat again until after the hatchlings have left the nest. But since you spent so much time away from them, I guess your body thought you’d lost them, and was getting ready to make another.”
Ouch. I squirmed a little in place, dipping my head in shame. “Hey now, you make it sound like I’m a bad mother. I didn’t MEAN to… abandon them, I just… Master got banished, and I had to follow, and then we’ve been so busy with the whole ‘Earth meeting Terra’ thing…”
Waving it away, she shook her head. “I didn’t say you were bad, I’m just explaining why you’re going into heat again. We’re going to have to have a talk about dragons some time.” Realizing what she said, she started to laugh. “I’m going to have to teach a dragon, about dragons. I never would have expected that!”
Master was less amused, it seemed. “Yes, well, in the mean time, let’s focus, please. This part mentioned ‘cleansings’ and ‘scouring the soul’. What can you tell me about that, Dweli?”
The question seemed to have caught her off-guard. Taking a moment to ponder it, her face lit up with excitement. “Wait, I’ve seen that mentioned! Early on, he mentioned using a ritual to ‘cleanse’ himself of something. I thought he meant hygiene, but let me check that again.” She flipped through one of the other journals, stopping when she found the entry in question. “Ah, here. ‘The Scale is leaving behind an unpleasant residue. I’ve devised a circle that can get rid of it. This saves so much time, I don’t have to wait for it to pass on its own. So much better than being limited, the way lesser mages are.’ When I first read it, I thought he meant, say, dust on his clothes. But this ‘residue’… The danger of Dragon Scale is the way the buildup of essence causes symptoms that…” Her eyes were wide with realization, her gaze drifting up to look at Master. “Kind of match the way a dragon behaves. What if it’s actually affecting the soul and not just the body? Instinctual behaviors affecting personality, a minor form of what you’re going through?” Pieces were fitting together in her mind, and she wasn’t even waiting for a reply.
Master and I looked at each other, unsure how to proceed. I was pretty sure this was promising, but I let Master speak up. “I like to think I’m not nearly as… vainglorious as Elimaio was. I admit, I’ve been frustrated easily lately, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying I’m acting draconic.”
Dweli paused in her excited search through another journal to look up, her face incredulous. “You talked about wanting to bite Roffil’s neck. You really haven’t noticed? You’ve been pacing like a caged animal since you arrived, and I’m pretty sure some of the claw marks on the walls aren’t from Princess.”
Master sheepishly pouted. “Well, it feels good to drag the claws along things. It’s like scratching an itch in my fingertips.”
The Professor of Magical Animals just continued to stare. “Yeah, male dragons like to sharpen their claws and mark their territory. Especially during breeding season.”
He huffed in annoyance at that, his tail lashing behind him. He had to sit sideways in the chair, and the tail draped off behind it, so the movement sent it sliding along the floor. After a moment of silence, he decided to change the subject. “So, this soul-cleansing circle, did he happen to record that anywhere? Or can we make one ourselves, now that we know the theory?”
With a sigh, Dweli picked another book off the pile. “Guess we better find out. At least we know what we’re looking for now.”
I decided to keep quiet about the thoughts that her comment sparked, the one about how males act during breeding season. I didn’t want to be a distraction, after all.