“All that effort just to get a flimsy piece of paper like this one… Are you sure this was worth it?” I asked Azoth, staring at the dubious, faintly glowing seal on the letter in my hands.
“The letter itself is not very valuable; rather, it’s the doors that it will open for you that is.” She said as we walked away, the temple and the academy growing smaller behind us.
“In any case, there is too much for us to discuss in private. Let us find an inn and rent a room so that we can get to it; I am sure you have many burning questions for me since we left the Unfathomable Abyss.”
I grunted, and it did not take long for us to find one.
***
As soon as the door closed behind Azoth, she rapidly began casting a number of spells on the room. The floor, walls, and ceiling began to glow with strange alternating colors, then the glow faded and took with it the noise of the outside world.
“Now then, no one should be able to listen in on our conversation, whether by placing their ears on the walls to the room or through scrying orbs. You can lay any questions you have for me off your chest.” Azoth said, leaning against the wall of the modest wooden room.
For a moment, my mind blanked and I tried to take in the events that happened since I met Azoth. She saved me from the Frost Eagle – thanks to the intervention of the Goddess of Fortune – and chose to take me under her wing. Before she could name me, she quickly cast an illusion spell, if it really was just an illusion, to hide me from someone she said was a pain to deal with. Then we came to Tamery and met the Gods, who she was quite hostile to and seemed to know. Then she took me to this academy and asked for a letter of recommendation to go to yet another academy.
My eyebrows furrowed as I thought, then with a grunt of frustration, I decided to ask them one at a time.
“Let’s start from the beginning. After you saved me from the Frost Eagle, you helped me in more ways than one and said you wished to be my guardian. Even to the point where you said you were going to beat up my parent’s for not naming me and leaving me in this situation. Why?”
“Going for the tough questions right from the get-go; I am beginning to see that you are not the type to beat around the bush.” Azoth chuckled with chagrin.
Then her face darkened as she contemplated how to word her answer.
“I saw a child that was in grave danger from a predator. I did not need a reason to intervene and protect you; that was my duty. As for the reason I chose to take you in… Let’s just say there are reasons why your case in particular tugged on my heartstrings. So, in a way, you saved me just as much as I have saved you.” She smiled, her features clearing up.
“Regarding the ‘beating up your parents’ bit, I had noticed that you were anxious about me hurting you because you were not born a dragon, but a mere Abyssal Lizard, and tried to hide those memories from me. I thought I might as well bury those fears for you at the moment by making a remark like that. Not to mention that both you and the gods ended up blurting it out anyway in our meeting with them.”
Immediately, my face flushed red, and I wished the earth would swallow me whole.
“You knew?! You knew the whole time I was just pretending to be born to dragons?!” I shrieked, holding my head in my hands.
Azoth blinked, then started laughing. My hands moved from my head to my face, groaning as I tried to hide it from sheer embarrassment.
“Ugh, you’re the worst.” I said, my voice weak.
Azoth eventually settled down, a broad grin on her face.
“Bless your heart, my child. If it makes you feel better, I think you made the right decision given how little you knew of me and dragons in general. You were a young child in need of emotional support, and I would never harm you for not being born a dragon, much less being one. Other dragons are the same; even those who can be cruel do it with a practical purpose.”
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“In any case, I have been treating you as if you were my own child ever since. Still, you made the best decision you could with the facts you had, even if it was adorable to watch you lie and tell on yourself at the same time.” She snickered as I cringed, and I tried to change the topic.
“When you were about to name me, you quickly cast a spell to hide that I am a dragon and rapidly took us to the first layer of the abyss, saying that a problematic person was using magic to look at us. Who could be such a threat that even you would be wary of them?”
Azoth stared at me for a little bit, then smiled again as she answered.
“Don’t think I am not aware of your attempt to change the subject, but I’ll go along with it just this once.”
I suddenly found that the walls of the room were the most interesting objects in the world, marveling at their artistic beauty. Unimpressed, Azoth carried on.
“The person I was talking about was my sister, Ighir, the Flame Dragon. She is not my enemy, but family I care for. I just find her... difficult to deal with. I wanted to buy some time to figure out what we were going to do before your 'aunt' came knocking on our doorstep to meet you.” Azoth said, sighing.
“What do you mean by ‘difficult to deal with?’” I asked, puzzled.
Then I remembered my snarky sibling who ended up dying rather quickly to the Black Hunter Spider.
“Ighir is… intense, as most of the fire attributed tend to be, if you recall the headmaster’s lecture on the attributes. And I do not know of anyone with a stronger affinity to fire than her. Which in turn often leads to headaches for me.” She said, rubbing her temple.
“In any case, I was only delaying the inevitable, and you have nothing to worry about. I assume she will dote on you just as much as she does on her own kid, your 'cousin', who she will no doubt be happy to introduce to you. You were both born recently, so I imagine that having a peer of the same age will do you some good.”
It took me a bit to take in what Azoth said, then I shrugged and moved on to my next question.
“When we met the gods, you tensed up before. It seems like this was not your first meeting with them, and that your relationship with them was quite hostile. You even brought up words like ‘Celestial War’ and ‘treaty’. What happened? And why do you distrust the gods so much?”
Azoth held a somber expression for a while. I began to fidget on my seat at the edge of the bed as Azoth seemed lost in thought. Just as the silence was beginning to feel awkward, Azoth spoke.
“The story is rather complicated, and you will probably learn about it in more detail later on. Both in Kengir Academy and in my lessons for you. For now, all you need to know is that the Gods and the Dragons fought a war, and I lost many of my friends and family in it. We felled just as many of the Gods in battle, if not more, including many that died by my hand. The hatred from that era still remains within me and many dragons who lived through it, but younger generations like yourself need not concern yourself with it.” She explained.
“Much of the same applies to the Gods as well, so be wary when dealing with them. The only gods I am personally willing to trust are the Tameryian God of Mercy, who you already met, the Divine Elephant of Tyr, and the Ionian Goddess of Peace. The rest I have either not interacted with or hold a grudge against, depending on if they were alive during the celestial war. But like I said, do not concern yourself with any of that beyond a general caution towards the gods.”
“Okay, I guess we can talk about that more later on. My last question is about the academy we just walked out of and the Kengir Academy. Why did you take me there and ask for a letter of recommendation?”
Crossing her arms and tapping her fingers on them, Azoth answered me.
“The Goddess of Fortune is untrustworthy, even by the standards of the Gods. That said, she had contacted you even before I met you and saved your life in anticipation of future disasters, so I have to consider her warning seriously. I have no intention of allowing any harm to come to you, but I cannot tell what the future holds, so I want to prepare you to be capable of protecting yourself, if needed, as quickly as possible. Enrolling at the Kengir Academy along with personal tutoring from me will accelerate your learning faster than any other method I can think of.” She paused, waiting for me to voice any objections.
Seeing that I had none, she carried on.
“I took you to that academy to ask for a letter of recommendation so that you can apply to it; foreigners to Kengir need someone to vouch for their potential, as the academy has a limited number of seats. I could have written one for you myself, but that would have put far more attention on you than I think you would have been comfortable with. With your talent and potential, it’s only a matter of time before you draw it anyway, but I wanted to give you the chance to experience a normal student life and to form bonds with friends before that happens.” She concluded.
“Now, do you have any more questions for me?”
I put my hand on my chin, thinking if I had missed anything. Suddenly, the most obvious one struck me.
“Yeah, just one. 'Now what?'”