Monday morning rolled around and for a moment, Drenar thought that maybe, things had calmed down for a moment. The scales haven’t spread in almost a full day. "So what have we learned from this weekend?" he asks Evan at the main entryway to the school cafe.

"Stick to the plan." Evan did not like the idea of staying low. Or trying to dig up as much as he could on the Talons. “Jonaleth wouldn’t dare try something ballsy in school, and certainly not where there are witnesses.”

"And don't talk to Jackie?" he insists. "Just...avoid her." Evan grunts irritably but says nothing more. Angela is waiting for Drenar at a table, as well as James.

"You never explained how Evan got that bruise," Angela asks a moment later.

"Parkour accident," he replies nonchalantly. "He tried to climb something he shouldn't have."

"That healed pretty fast. Don't bruises last for days or weeks?" She gave him a curious glance.

"I'm an engineer, not a doctor." He decides that this is a subject that needs to be avoided. "So, all in favor of never letting James go 'zero charisma mode' again, say aye."

"Aye," they all said in unison, with James being a good sport about it.

"So Drenar, you were hanging out with Julia Friday?"

"Yeah, we hung out. I wasn’t planning on staying long, but then…Evan decided to dive into the pavement," Drenar laughs. Because telling you the rest would be insanity.

"Did you two have…a moment?" Angela asks with a hint of amusement. Drenar forgets his precarious position tipping in the chair a split second too long and falls, startled by her question.

"No!" He half exclaims once he stands back up. "Why would you even think that?!" He lets out a frustrated sigh when she starts laughing uncontrollably. It then occurs to him the question is too random for her. "Alright, where's the script, did Julia come up with this?"

"Drat. What gave it away?" She says before showing her phone and a couple of suggestions from Julia that aren't subtle at all.

"You two are like devils on each other's shoulders at times. Also, hetero life buddy zone," he answers flatly. "Also, I thought we had closed the circuit on exclusivity?"

"I'm willing to share her with you, just saying." He opens his mouth to retort, and realizes how many horrible responses could be hurtled back, and says nothing while Angela grins. "Just saying, give it some thought."

"Thought about it, moved on from said thought. Now can we move on before James murder faces me?" he shot back.

"Not that I'm gonna comment on the implied statements here and considering one of those involved is my sister, but did you just pass up on a menage a trois?" James utters sourly while browsing through his collection of gaming cards.

"I'm a one lady at a time kind of guy. Pretty sure Julia would be too wild for even me to handle," Drenar replies while trying not to think about that scenario.

"You can't even handle me," Angela grins and tousles his hair, much to his annoyance. "Alright, I'm off to class, see you guys in a bit!"

"You know, for someone who is a complete and utter nerd, you manage to attract girls way above your weight class," James comments after a pause.

"C'mon James, we all grew up together. That's hardly an unbiased standard. Julia and Angela aren't a higher class, they're just a whole other class," he adds with a wry smile. "Don't start waxing on 'be gentle with her' because you know you don't have to worry." James didn't respond right away. Something catches his eye, and he glances at several people getting up. Drenar notices people are moving at a fast pace. Too fast for just going to class. There is a murmur of excitement through the crowd.

“Drenar, something’s up. Where’s everyone going?”

“I don’t know. Let’s follow.” he hastily discards his tray and follows the crowd. His cell phone pings in his pocket, and he glances down. Julia just messaged him.

[Drenar. You need to see this for yourself. Second-floor landing.]

[Hurry.]

Drenar realizes this is about as subtle a red alert from Julia as he's going to get, and he follows the crowd. Both he and James round the hallway corner, and see everyone huddling at the base of the center stairwell, just out of their sight. Angela and Julia are standing there, with Julia taking a photo of something. “Guys, we came as quick as we could, what’s the big commotion?” he asks. Julia doesn’t even bother to answer him, and merely points at the stairwell. He looks at where she gestured to. He takes a step forward, and realizes that this is bad on a whole other level. "Oh. Oh, we have problems.”

If someone has intended to send a message, it's decidedly not about their skill as an artist. This is a display of sheer dread and terror when he took in the glistening mural sprayed over what would have been a spartan brick wall. He could make the shape out of a skull and a wilted lily on a crimson background, sprayed in vivid detail. Clutching both of these articles in bloodied claws was an enormous dragon, with black and midnight blue scales, and a mouth open in a perpetual roar, and wings spread broadly from its back. All around this imposing creature, he could make out faint images of bodies and a bit of text on the bottom.

“Drenar…that’s pretty creepy.” Angela pulls him back forcibly. “How did someone put this up so fast?"

“What’s that wording on the bottom?” someone whispers.

“Is this a threat against the school?” yet another person dares to say. Drenar ignores everything else and digs in his bag for the book. He scans through the section on dragon species, looking for a match. With a dreaded realization, he already knew what he was going to find. The details of the black and midnight blue scales, the spiked horns, and even the blackened flames are a near-perfect match for the cataloged specimen. Even the abyssal red eyes, the way they gleam with malevolent, intelligent evil, leads him to one conclusion.

The Siberian Hellkite. He can feel his breath shudder ever so slightly, and his chest tightens. He can feel his heartbeat quickening. Someone is putting out stuff they shouldn't be. This looks like gang art or some kind of propaganda piece.

“Drenar, which one is it?” Julia asks quietly.

“Siberian Hellkite. Perfect match." She holds the book and steadies his own slightly trembling hand with her own, and her expression grows steadfast. “Every detail, even the scale pattern. It’s not the Nightwing, no mottling of green and blue scales, but black and midnight blue. The wing shape is off, too--has to be the Hellkite.”

"But…why would someone do this?" she asks without taking her eyes off the page. "This looks like some kind of mascot or gang graffiti. Could this be a coincidence?"

"Unlikely. Too much of this is identical for chance, even as varied as art styles go." He barely keeps himself from pondering the question in his mind aloud. Could this creature exist? Of course it certainly can. If Julia can summon plasma energy and fry a microwave, and I can grow scales, then this monster also is out there somewhere. Why was this put here, in our school of all places? This is either a planned reveal, or someone did something really stupid.

“What are you guys looking at--wow, that’s kind of an uncanny resemblance,” Angela comments, temporarily immune to the hushed whispers that are all around them. Julia points to the mural.

“Angie, what’s that bit on the bottom? Is that...Latin?” she squints her eyes, as if focusing on the words. “Hang on.” She pulls out her phone and snaps an image, and zooms in closely and shows it to Angela. She spends a few seconds peering at the image, eyes narrowed. Angela reaches for the spray paint, but Julia pulls her hand back at the last second. The paint still appears moist, the way it glistens in the bright morning sun.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“‘The oppressors reign unchallenged. The tyranny remains unchecked. The Onyx night shall descend upon the usurpers. Justice will be done.’” Angela appears as unnerved as Drenar and Julia.

“Drenar, what is going on?” James asked him cautiously.

“I have no idea.” He sees teachers escorting everyone away, shouting at people to go to their classes. He scans through the crowd, looking for someone showing a different reaction--anyone who doesn’t look aghast at this flagrant and intimidating vandalism. Someone put this here for a reason, by means that could only have been done in a couple of minutes without being seen by the passers-by in the hall. Wizards at work. Wonderful. They all picked a great time to simultaneously disrupt my life. His first instinct is to see where Jonaleth is–the cretin has already inflicted violence, and destruction of property is trivial by comparison.

Instead, he’s surprised to see a grim look on Nicholas, who is photographing the image at a distance with his cell phone. Drenar casually circles to the side, working his way past the gaggle of people, and focuses all his will into picking out his words from the crowd. He brushes a few people aside–no one calls out hasty motion. He can hear Nick's voice out of the dozens nearby–like his mind is filtering out all the other noise.

“–Levine, I’ll say it again. They’re back. The Talons just put up a propaganda flier right in the middle of the school in broad daylight, this is brazen even for them." He continues talking to the person on the other end, shifting his position slightly to take an image, then clicks a few buttons. “Take a look at the image. Drop everything else you’re doing and focus on this, something is in motion,” he insists, and beelines to the restroom. Drenar follows at a short distance, so it wouldn’t be obvious. He edges the bathroom door slowly. He heard Nicholas still in conversation, and he silently closed the door and leaned around the corner.

“This situation just accelerated. It isn’t just this, it’s the three Awakenings over the weekend. Three of them within forty-eight hours? Way beyond coincidence.” Drenar hears pacing around, and the slam of a bathroom stall door. Nick is very tense. "My other leads turned up something new. Mining permits were pulled five years ago by one of their fronts for a now-decommissioned mine on Mount Syren. Three years ago the mine closed, some kind of accident. Don’t you think that’s a little odd?”

More silence, Drenar could start to make out the words of the other person, but not enough to make sense yet. "Follow the money, the funds for the permit came from an escrow account of dubious origins. It gets weirder Levine, get this, the holder of the account was found dead two years ago, ripped to pieces in his own home. This has red flags all over it."

Another pause. He can barely make it out–the tone indicates grave concern. "No, it definitely wasn't some Vine addict who killed him in a robbery gone wrong, the way the body was dismembered suggests something highly personal. Punishment. Multiple blows with a bladed instrument to hack him to pieces? Not even the Crimean syndicate is that brutal. Whoever killed him passed on collectibles and high-value historical artifacts worth seven figures or more. Theft of a cell phone and a couple of gaudy jewelry pieces doesn't pass the smell test."

It feels like someone takes a wad of cotton out of his ears, and suddenly he can hear it. A male with a British or Scottish accent who speaks with a smooth, deep voice, a voice of authority, and confidence. Professionalism, even. Every other sound seemed to just…dissolve into the background.

"So, what's the connection Nick?" The other person asks. He takes a second.

“I think they found something in the mine. What that is, I don’t know. And I don’t know how that relates to this enchanted mural, or the string of Awakenings. Or if they’re even related. You’re the one that preaches that when we hear hoofbeats, we think of horses, not zebras.”

"Aye. Maybe. But I’ve been at this long enough to know when there’s a pattern buried deep. These events are related. There must be common threads somewhere. We just need one loose thread to unravel this cryptic tapestry." The male on the line seems to Drenar like he’s an investigator. Nick responds before Drenar can ponder the exchange.

"Think I should tell Sam?"

"Not yet. Too early to get them involved, not without solid leads. You're good at kicking over rocks Nick, go do that. My big question is, what's the connection to the Awakenings? Is it perhaps just a coincidence? Normal awakenings would be strange enough…but drakensouls? They’re a rarity among a rarity.”

"I don’t know. It’s very strange timing though, with these events happening in such short order. How many Awakenings for drakensouls have occurred over the past hundred years?”

“Maybe a few thousand. That’s a fraction of how many dragons were theorized to exist around the time…I think the lowball estimate was a million and a half. Two million?” Drenar has to hold his breath, because this is stunning.

This is all related. Nick clearly knows what’s up, but what’s his angle? Who does he work for? The Conclave? SAF, like Evan mentioned? It’s a theory that makes some sense. SAF would focus on containment breaches of the knowledge of magic. They had to. Magic and monsters would upend the geopolitical calculus of the world in an instant if they got out in the open.

"There's been a dozen awakenings inside two weeks over a geographically tiny area, and that might be an undercount. We are in seriously uncharted territory, Levine. We are lucky my town isn't what you would call urban by any measure. I should have kept tabs closer to home. I came home after Mom’s death and…everything’s changed.”

“Nick, you do know a couple of professional draconologists who could shed some light on this,” Levine suggests. It’s a more…personal tone. Nicks worked with this man for a while.

“Amaranth is the absolute worst at responding to calls from anyone, and he spends most of his time in magical biozones where cell towers don’t exist, or there’s too much interference from metamagical ores.”

Drenar’s eyes widen–Nick knows Amaranth? Julia is going to have a freaking meltdown when she hears this!

“What about that lovely woman you met, who was his protégé?”

“Huh? Josephine? Well…I dunno. It’s been about a year and change since I last saw her. I think she took a new job after she left MBPS, I don’t quite remember where…it might have been Asqualia! With her level of talent, that actually makes sense,” he sighs contentedly.

“Oh, did you two have a thing?” Levine almost sounds amused at this.

“Nope. Purely professional, I was a tagalong for some of their forays for field research. First and last time I’ll ever try to take on a Kryngaxx.” Drenar rolls his eyes, it's’ like Nick is a magnet for literally every girl in the school, and he politely turns all of them down. “Hmm, I don’t think I have her phone number, either. I’m sure I can ask around, she would be another good person to field a few questions on the subject. All I do know is that I feel like something bad is about to happen, Levine. I’ve got a danger sense that feels like it's been on non-stop alert for about a month.”

“Drenar, why are you lurking in--”

Seriously James, now of all times?! He shoots him a panicked look and a motion for silence. James recoils silently, mouth open, like he’s seen a ghost. Then his face scrunches, and he just looks confused.

“Levine, I gotta go. Something came up.” Drenar hears a phone click off. Nick looks surprised to see them when he rounds the corner. “Wait--Drenar, James? Why are you guys here?”

“I was trying to get away from the crowd,” Drenar lies. “What a freaky mural. Have you ever seen anything like that?”

“Like what?” He looked at him suspiciously.

“You know, the giant dragon sitting over a pile of dead bodies.” He continues to look at him curiously, and then shrugs.

“Nah. Never seen anything like that before,” he replies before turning to James. “So what did you guys think it was?”

“Super creepy, in a word,” James eyeballs Nicholas in equal measure. “Okay, let’s just jet Drenar, I don’t wanna be anywhere near here when teachers, police, and the media show up."

“That's probably not a bad idea,” Nicholas says before putting away his cell phone. He hesitates at the door, and turns to face them over his shoulder. “If you guys see anything weird...tell me first?” he asked, sounding uneasy.

“Why, exactly?” James demands.

“It’s just...nothing, never mind,” he sighs. He straightens his hair and quickly made his way out the door. James turns to stare at Drenar. He can feel his chest still tightening and his heart rate still hasn't gone down. In fact, it's racing now, and he feels a light arcing pain in his fingertips.

“What the hell has gotten into you lately, Drenar?” James demands. He isn’t just annoyed, he’s legitimately pissed off now. “You saw that mural. You saw something you recognized. But why? And from where?” Drenar barely hears him over the sound of blood rushing behind his ears. He feels dizzy and slightly nauseous, and his arm isn’t just itching, it’s in aching pain right now. “Hey, uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like crap right now.”

Oh no. No, I can’t Awaken here in school, this is a disaster, keep awake!

“I’m...fine,” Drenar manages to blurt out. He staggers over to the sink, misses the counter and clinks the edge of the sink with his fingers. He takes several heaving breaths and looks towards the floor. He tries to keep awake, counting on the inhale and exhale, and tries to steady himself on legs that seem to have all the strength draining from them.

The last thing he sees before the creeping blackness at the corners of his vision closes in, is James rushing towards him.