Warm sunlight filtered through the trees, filling the forest with spots of light that danced around whenever the wind rustled the leaves overhead. A rocky stream was running nearby, and a little further away, there was a clearing where a small herd of unicorns could be seen, grazing peacefully. Their coats caught the sunlight, shining various shades of white, cream, and gold.
A few more unicorns were lying down in the shade where Thenio was sitting, including a dark gold one that was lying next to him, letting him lean against its side and stroke its soft mane.
This was obviously a dream.
Unicorns lived almost exclusively in the Ket'qe forest. They didn't like humans in general, and it was very rare for a unicorn to become a familiar and leave the forest. Quite a few wizards tried to win them over, since they were one of only a few life affinity magic beasts in the world. But only very exceptional life mages were able to form a contract with one.
Thenio wasn't a life mage. He'd never been to Ket'qe. And he'd never seen a real unicorn.
But even if it was just a dream, it was a very pleasant one, and he wanted to enjoy it as long as he could.
He wasn't alone with the unicorns. A man was sitting close by with his back against a tree. He had a light-colored piece of wood in his hand, and he was carefully shaping it with a knife. For some reason, Thenio couldn't see the man's face, but he felt very comfortable in his presence, as though it were someone he cared about very much and had known for a long time.
Thenio watched as the man whittled down the wooden block until it began to resemble a four-legged animal. But as he was carving out a space between its front legs, there was a sudden cracking sound, and the carving split into two pieces.
"Not again...." The man sounded exasperated.
Thenio stared down at the piece that had fallen on the ground. "Oh. It broke."
"I'm sorry, Thenio. I guess I still need more practice...."
Thenio felt disappointed about the carving, but he still gave the man an encouraging smile. "It's okay! You can just try again! Remember what Brel says whenever your carvings don’t come out right?" He waved his hand toward the surrounding trees. "’We have a whole forest here. There's lots more wood, so you can always try again.’"
The man gave a small laugh. "Well...you're right. I'll try again. I'll keep trying until I get good enough at wood carving to make you anything you want. I promise." He reached down and picked up the fallen piece of wood. "But I also promised I'd make you a unicorn today, and it's starting to get late. So I guess I'm going to have to cheat this time."
He held both of the wood pieces in his cupped hands. They started to glow faintly, and the wood seemed to melt together and then reshape itself. When it hardened again, it was in the form of a beautiful prancing unicorn.
"Here you go." The man placed the figurine in Thenio's hands, which looked oddly small and childlike when he held them out to take it. Then he tousled Thenio's hair affectionately. "I'm sorry. I'll do it right next time."
"It's fine." Thenio gave him a broad smile. "I like the ones you cheat on, too. Thanks, Dad!"
Huh? That man wasn't his father...why had he called him that? Thenio didn't know. Just...it felt right somehow....
His face still wasn't visible, but Thenio was sure that the man was giving him a gentle, happy smile.
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When Bero returned from visiting Kalion, it was late, and the house was quiet. Iggy and Thenio seemed to both be asleep. But there was a light coming from Ariom's workroom.
Bero paused in the open doorway. Ariom was seated at his desk, and Bero could see the side of his face, glaring up at something on the wall in front of him. Bero couldn't help smiling a little. He knew that expression. He'd seen it regularly ever since Ariom was a baby. It looked like he was unhappy about something, but it really just meant he was trying to figure out a problem.
Bero tapped on the door and then entered the room.
Ariom looked over at him. "Oh, you're back."
"Yeah." Bero walked over and pulled out one of the chairs next to the worktable so he could sit down. "Are you still staring at those charts?"
Ariom had several charts hung up on the wall over his desk. To most people, they would have looked like a confusing mess of lines that formed a vaguely human shape. But Bero could easily recognize them as the results of a magic circuit scan. He'd seen hundreds of these scan results during the years he'd worked at the Stability Center.
He'd never seen any quite like Thenio's, though.
When a person's magic circuit was scanned, the lines showing their magic pathways often formed patterns that looked random or tangled, but the lines themselves would generally be clean and clear. But the lines on Thenio's charts were...fuzzy. They looked like they were covered in fur or tiny spines.
"I just can't figure them out." Ariom looked back at the charts. "There's no way his magic pathways are actually shaped like that. It has to have something to do with how the magic power from the scanning device reflects off his magic circuit. But I have no idea what the exact mechanism is."
"It should be related to how his magic keeps changing types, shouldn't it?"
"Presumably, yes. But I can't figure out how that works, either. I've tried to come up with a magic formation to replicate it, but nothing I've made so far has quite the same effect."
"Hmm." Bero looked at the charts thoughtfully. "What did Iggy say about them?"
"He seems to have some sense of what's going on, but he can't explain it well enough for me to be able to understand. He says Thenio's magic is 'making sparks' or that it's 'kind of broken.' Well, that's sort of the impression I get when I look at it, too—like his magic is fragmented and not flowing properly. But I still have no idea what's causing it." Ariom sounded frustrated.
Bero reached out and gave his nephew an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Hey, it's only been a couple of weeks. If it were an easy problem, someone else would have solved it already. You'll get there. You just need to keep at it."
"Yes, I'll get there," Ariom said bitterly. "But will I get there fast enough?"
"You're doing your best, Ariom. And you're making progress. That's all anyone can ask of you." Bero sighed. "'Just do the best you can. One day at a time.' That's what Focilo always says, right? Guilt for the past and fear for the future will only hinder the actions of the present."
"That guy and his philosophizing.... It's probably a good thing I wasn't born with a life affinity. I would have made a lousy doctor."
Bero laughed. "Yeah, I think you would have."
Ariom scowled at him. "Isn't that where you're supposed to disagree and reassure me...? Well, whatever." He glanced around the room. "Where's Humerus, by the way?"
"I put him in bed as soon as we got back. He was already tired from wearing skin all afternoon, and then he messed around over at Kalion's and completely wore himself out. He and Tamon were playing their usual games—pretending to fight over food and then going out to the garden to have fun and eat together where no one would see. We found them passed out on the veranda. I had to gather up Humerus' bones and bring him home in his carry bag." Bero chuckled. "Typical visit to Kalion's house, in other words."
Two familiars falling asleep together might seem like a small thing, but anyone who knew much about revenants would understand how significant it actually was. Revenants lost control of their vessels when they slept, and when they woke up, they had to take a few minutes to reestablish their puppetry magic before they could move again. They were very vulnerable to attacks during this period, so they never fell asleep when they were alone with someone they didn't completely trust.
They might love to argue and tease each other, but Humerus and Tamon were actually very close friends.
"Kalion said to thank you for the redflower juice," Bero went on. "It's one of his favorites, but he has a hard time finding anyone who can remove the magic without ruining the taste. So he appreciated it."
"That...well, I mean, I was asking him for a favor, so...." Ariom trailed off, clearly embarrassed.
"Speaking of that, he said he'd arrange for someone from the training center to contact you about Thenio's acrobatics training. It might be difficult to find an instructor who has good enough magic control to safely work with him and is available on a regular basis. But they can at least evaluate his current skills and send someone to check on him once in a while to see if he needs any help. They'll provide equipment for him, too, though Kalion said the Magic Corps' gear all has enchantments on it, so you'll need to check it when it comes to make sure it's safe for Thenio to use."
Ariom sighed. "I never thought I'd be setting up an acrobatics training center in my house.... But." His expression softened a little. "It sounded like Thenio really liked his acrobatics classes. If it makes his training more enjoyable.... Well. I guess just having acrobatics equipment around isn't really going to hurt anything."
Bero smiled. Look at this kid. He was finally growing up a little....
They were both silent for a minute.
"So, can you tell me now?" Ariom asked quietly.
"Tell you what?"
"What Thenio's parents said. I could see you were upset about something when you finished talking to them."
"Ah. That." Bero's expression darkened a little. He was quiet for a moment, sorting out his thoughts. "I know you won't like what I'm about to say, so let me preface it by saying that I don't think Thenio's parents are particularly bad people. A little too caught up in their own ambitions, yes. Maybe even a little on the selfish side. But not malicious in any way. They do seem to care about their children and are trying to do what they think is best for them. It's just...."
"Just?"
Bero sighed. "When I told them about Thenio's magic seeming to cause other people to feel an aversion to him, they seemed...relieved."
Ariom blinked. "Relieved? Why would they be relieved to know something like that is happening to their son?"
"Because it means it isn't their fault."
"What isn't?"
"That they've never felt like Thenio really was their son."
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Ariom's eyes widened. "What? They said that?"
Bero nodded slowly. "Yes. They did. I was doing my best to be understanding and sympathetic toward their situation, and apparently it was enough to get them to trust me a bit. Because after I told them about the effects of Thenio's magic, they opened up and told me how uncomfortable he'd always made them feel. His mother said she'd felt that way from the time he was born. At first she thought it was just that she was new to being a mother, so the whole experience was unfamiliar, but after Thenio's brother was born, she realized it was something about Thenio himself. She said that apart from the magic explosions, he's never really misbehaved or caused them any trouble, but a part of her was still convinced that he's some kind of monster hiding in a human form. She's always felt a little guilty about that, so she was relieved to hear that his chaos magic was the cause of it."
Ariom frowned. "But...when he was a baby, he shouldn't have been producing enough magic power to have any effect. So why would she have felt that way back then?"
"That's the question, isn't it? I thought it was better not to correct her assumption, but I did wonder about it." Bero glanced toward the door into the workshop. "They asked me not to tell Thenio about any of this, by the way. And I think it’s better that we don’t."
"Yes...I think so, too...."
They both fell silent again.
"So what do we do about it?" Ariom asked quietly. "Didn't Humerus call Thenio a monster, too? Do you think he actually is one, despite all the medical evidence saying he's human?"
Bero shrugged. "Does it really matter if he is? Humerus, Tamon, Alula.... Some people would say that they're all monsters. Do monsters deserve to be hated, even if they never hurt anyone? Humerus might call Thenio a monster, but he still likes him a lot."
"I know. I didn't mean it like that. I just meant...." Ariom paused, looking conflicted. "Well. I'm not confident that I even know how to take care of a human boy." He glanced back at the charts on the wall. "How am I supposed to know what to do for him when we don't know for sure what he is?"
"Just keep doing what you're doing now. Be kind to him. Do your best to figure out his chaos magic and keep him alive. That's all he really needs from you. And it's not like you're on your own, you know? I don't think you can depend on Thenio's parents for too much, but Eteon seems willing to help you out. Kalion and Focilo are, too. And you know you can always come to me and your Aunt Tilia whenever you need anything."
"Yeah...I know."
Bero gave his nephew a gentle smile and patted his shoulder again. "You'll be fine, Ariom. You've already trained a few excellent apprentices, and you're doing a good job raising Iggy. You're better at this parenting thing than you think you are. Have a little confidence in yourself."
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Thenio was finally allowed to use Ariom's kitchen for the first time the day before Bero and Humerus were scheduled to go back to their farm. It was also Seyli's day off from school, and she and Tava spent most of the day at Ariom's house.
Ariom had already tested the magic tools in the kitchen and adjusted them as needed to make sure they were safe for Thenio to use. But Thenio still needed to learn how to use everything, since Ariom's kitchen had fancier magic tools than the ones he was used to using back at home. So the two of them made lunch together to give Thenio a chance to practice under Ariom's supervision.
Thenio was happy to finally be able to cook again. But the practice session ended up attracting more spectators than he'd expected, which made things a little uncomfortable.
"Is this really that interesting to watch?" he asked skeptically, pausing in the middle of cutting up a carrot to put in the salad and looking up at the row of faces watching him through the dragon box window. All three dragons were lined up along the platform on the other side of the glass, which was enchanted to allow sound to pass through easily, so he knew they'd be able to hear him.
"Mmm!" Iggy nodded. "I like to watch people cook. I like to help, too! But Ariom doesn't let me help anymore." His ears drooped. "He got really mad when I fell into the mashed potatoes that one time.... But it wasn't really my fault, you know? The pot was super slippery!"
"It was your fault," Ariom said, frowning at him. "How many times did I tell you not to lean over the edge of the pot? And it wasn't just the mashed potatoes. There was also that time you got into the raspberry jam and tracked little sticky red footprints all over the carpet. Or that time you knocked a box of eggs off the counter, and they broke all over the floor. And how about when you were a hatchling and you kept sneaking up behind me and attacking my feet, so I'd get startled and drop things?"
"That's not fair!" Iggy protested. "I was just a baby then, so I didn't know it was bad, okay? Now I'm a big, strong dragon, so I won't do it anymore!"
Ariom raised an eyebrow at him. "Somehow I'm not convinced...." He sighed. "Well, if Thenio wants to let you help, that's up to him. Not right now, though. He's still learning how to use the kitchen tools."
Iggy immediately turned back to Thenio with a hopeful expression.
Put on the spot, Thenio could only let out a weak laugh. "I think I can manage the oven fine, since it's pretty similar to the one my family has. So maybe after lunch we can all bake something together." He glanced at Ariom. "As long as you don't mind us using up some ingredients."
"If you're brave enough to try baking with Iggy, you can use all the ingredients you want."
"All right, then." Thenio looked back at the dragons. "How about we make cookies together?"
"Mmm! Yeah! Okay!" Iggy started hopping up and down excitedly. "I want to help make cookies!"
Humerus gave him a disapproving look and then sniffed. "Well...I guess you'll probably need some help keeping this silly dragon under control, so I'll join in if you want me to." His tone was unenthusiastic, but as usual, his waving tail gave him away.
"How about you, Tava?" Thenio asked, turning to the purple dragon.
"Krr?" She let out a questioning trill.
"Tava, do you want to bake a cake later?" Seyli asked from the dining room. She'd been sitting at the table, chatting with Bero and working on one of her school assignments.
"Mmm!" Tava nodded, waving her tail.
"She doesn't know too many cooking words," Seyli explained, giving Thenio an apologetic smile. "But getting a group together to bake cakes is a popular pastime in our dormitory, so she understands what that means. It's close enough to cookies to give her the general idea."
As Bero had predicted, Seyli was a bit more casual today. She was still wearing a fashionable dress, but her hair was pulled back in a simple half ponytail, tied with a ribbon, and she had been speaking to Thenio in a more relaxed manner.
Though this change actually made Thenio feel more nervous around her, since a more casual manner somehow made her seem even cuter.
"Is it all right if I help you with the baking? Keeping an eye on all three of them by yourself will probably be a little much," Seyli added with a laugh.
"Oh. Um...sure. If you want to," Thenio agreed awkwardly.
He could feel his cheeks growing a little warm and hastily turned back to his vegetable chopping so she wouldn't notice.
After everyone had eaten and the dishes were cleared away, the five of them assembled in the kitchen. Iggy bounced happily across the line of dark tiles that marked the edge of the kitchen, clearly pleased to be allowed to enter what was usually forbidden territory.
Seyli took charge of washing the dragons' paws while Thenio got out all the ingredients they would need for the cookies. Bero was upstairs packing, and Ariom had gone up to his workroom. Seyli was familiar with the kitchen and all the tools in it, so she would be able to help Thenio if he had any trouble with them.
"We're going to put jam in the cookies?" Iggy asked, tilting his head to look curiously at the jar Thenio had just set on the counter next to the tins of flour and sugar.
"That's right," Thenio replied with a smile. "Ariom talking about raspberry jam earlier made me think of this recipe. It's one that my brother Kleyo really likes to make."
He set a large mixing bowl on the counter near the freshly washed dragons, who were all sitting in a row. Then, consulting the recipe book that he'd brought over from his house the other day, he measured out some butter and sugar.
"Okay, the first thing we need to do is mix these two together really well." He handed a wooden spoon to Iggy. "All of you can take a turn stirring, all right?"
The dragons happily passed the bowl and spoon around, taking turns creaming the butter and sugar together.
Iggy had a little trouble, being too small to push the spoon with much force. But what he lacked in strength, he made up for in enthusiasm. Thenio had to hold onto the bowl to keep the little dragon from knocking it off the counter.
Humerus stirred surprisingly well. Thenio suspected that he was only holding onto the spoon for show and was actually moving it with his puppetry magic. But it got the job done, so there was no reason to complain.
Tava seemed a little confused about the whole process, but she watched the other two carefully and managed to mimic their movements fairly well when her turn came.
The dragons continued working together to stir in eggs, vanilla, and salt. But by the time Thenio began adding flour and the dough became stiffer, Iggy was starting to look tired, so Seyli volunteered to take over and finished mixing up the dough while Thenio got the baking sheets ready. Then the two of them worked together to roll the dough into little balls and put them on the sheets—something that was a bit beyond the capabilities of dragon paws. Thenio thought Humerus probably could have managed it with magic, but he was afraid that Iggy might get jealous if the revenant was allowed to help more than he was.
"All right," Thenio said when the first baking sheet was covered with three neat rows of cookie dough balls. "This is the fun part."
The dragons' ears perked up.
"What I need you three to do now is to press the middle of each dough ball down with your paw. Like this." Thenio demonstrated by pressing his thumb into the center of one of the balls. "We want to make a hollow place in the middle of the dough. Sort of like when you dig out ponds in the sandbox. But instead of water, we'll be filling them up with jam." He pointed to the jar of jam that was still sitting on the counter.
"We're making jam ponds?" Iggy asked, his tail twitching with interest.
"Right. Little tiny jam ponds. But they'll be shaped like your pawprints."
Thenio looked at the three of them. Iggy looked eager, but slightly confused, and Tava looked completely blank. She clearly didn't understand the concept of pawprint-shaped jam ponds. Well, it was a little strange....
"Um...Humerus, why don't you go first?"
Thenio pushed the cookie sheet over to the revenant, who seemed to understand what was going on the best. As he'd hoped, Humerus reached out his left front paw and pressed it neatly into the middle of one of the dough balls.
"Good, just like that," Thenio said, nodding. "Now do the rest of that row."
Once they'd seen Humerus do some, the other two quickly caught on and took turns pressing their own paws into the cookie dough. Iggy's prints turned out rather crooked, but that was sort of charming in its own way.
When all three rows were done, the dragons watched with interest while Thenio added a dab of jam to each pawprint. Seyli, meanwhile, was getting the next sheet of dough balls ready. They were making quite a large batch, both to keep the dragons entertained for longer and to let Seyli and Bero take some cookies back home with them.
A short time later, Thenio pulled the first sheet of cookies out of the oven. They'd turned a light golden brown color, and the jam had melted to fill in the pawprint shapes.
Seyli laughed when she saw them. "I see why Ariom's story about Iggy getting into the jam made you think of this. Sticky red pawprints, huh? At least they're not on the carpet this time."
Iggy put his ears back and gave her an annoyed look. But he soon turned his attention back to the cookies that Thenio was moving over to a cooling rack. "Those are the cookies we made together! They're all finished! Can we eat some?"
"You can," Thenio told him. "But wait a few minutes. They're still really hot."
"It should be fine, actually," Seyli said. "Iggy and Tava can both use fire magic, remember? They don't have a problem with eating hot foods."
"Huh? Oh." Thenio blinked. "They won't get burned? You're sure?"
"I'm sure." Seyli gave him an understanding smile. "I know, it seems wrong to us, since we're not fire mages. But I've seen Iggy eat food straight out of the oven before, and he was fine. And Tava is a proper flare dragon—she could climb in the oven and eat the cookies while they're still baking if she wanted to."
"Oh. Well...okay...."
Thenio was still a little hesitant, but he pulled out two small plates and put a few cookies on each one, then placed the plates in front of Iggy and Tava. Iggy immediately scooped up a cookie and started munching on it happily, sitting up on his haunches like a squirrel eating a nut. Tava spent a moment sniffing at her cookies before delicately taking a bite out of one. But even though her eating habits were more reserved than Iggy's, her waving tail seemed to indicate that she was still enjoying the snack.
"Sorry, Humerus," Thenio said, reaching out to stroke the revenant's head in apology. "I'd make some spiced ones for you if I could work with magic ingredients."
"It's okay. They're still fun to make, even if I can't eat any."
He said that, but Thenio saw him shoot a few envious glances toward the other two....
"Would it bother you to share the recipe?" Seyli asked. "If you give Uncle Bero a copy, Aunt Tilia could use it to make a spiced version after they get back home. She's a really good cook."
"Oh, sure." Thenio nodded. "That's not a problem."
Humerus' ears perked up, and his tail waved a little.
Seyli smiled when she saw that. Then she picked up a cookie from the cooling rack, blew on it a few times, and took a bite.
"Oh, these are good," she said after chewing thoughtfully for a moment. "Lunch was, too." She gave Thenio a warm smile. "You're a pretty good cook yourself."
Thenio was suddenly very glad he'd volunteered for the dragon baking session.