There was a lot of arguing. It was faint, but the intensity of the emotion behind it could scarcely have been hidden away by distance or even the fog swirling around Ginger as he struggled to wake up.

“...Professor Lyall? She’s really good with stuff like this, isn’t she? She teaches Dragon Biology, so maybe she can—” Rias was saying before being cut off.

“Last I checked, I was a dragon too, little imp. I know a decent amount about dragonlings and I’ll tell you, sleepwalking and hallucinating isn’t exactly part of the growth curve.”

“But Ginger is a dragon. Even if he is half-human, I doubt those genes would have the sort of influence that would make him do what he just did. Hasn’t there been any records of halflings like him experiencing… unusual behavior?” Even while half-conscious, Ginger could detect the queer way Caron said the last two words.

“Ginger is an anomaly among halflings. You know how those born and bred here in Ravi are treated. Under normal circumstances, Ginger would have had the misfortune of the same treatment, but well…”

“Well, what?” Reiss said. There was suspicion in his voice. Ginger almost imagined him donning his excessively creasy frown. Ira hopped over the question… perhaps literally. Ginger saw – however blurry – his figure hop over the messy floor of the small office to grab something from a pile of scrolls.

“In any case, I doubt Lyall will have an answer. If she couldn’t explain Ginger having dual-natured Kardia, she won’t be able to explain this,” he said.

“Then why not consult Principal Phoenix? She’s bound to know something, right?” Caron said as though she’d found the obvious solution.

“She’s not here and she likely won’t be for a while. She has a lot to answer for.” It was Vassilis who said it. There was a thinly veiled pleasure in his voice.

Curiosity was the last push of strength Ginger needed to open his eyes. He was in Ira’s small, untidy office, laid down on what might have been a new, comfy mattress. He made to sit up, but someone struck him hard with a brick. Yes. That must have been the explanation for the thunderous explosion of pain that spilled from his head right then.

Ginger clutched his temples and bit down a shriek.

It wasn’t just the pain that spread through his veins and arteries, causing him to suddenly feel a dreadful chill. There was also a flood of memories and words that shouldn’t have been roaming in the mind of a 14-year-old halfling.

“Ginger!” Reiss and Caron cried at once. They rushed towards him… perhaps a bit too quickly. For a moment, Ginger saw them as tall dark shapes advancing fiercely to grope and grab him, begging for Perfect Execution. He couldn’t have looked more horrified.

“Get away from me!” the dragonling shouted and drew back sharply, knocking his back against the wall.

The way his blood rushed away from his face plus the look he donned, forced his friends to an abrupt halt. They were taken aback.

“Get away!” Ginger cried and he forced his right hand in front of himself protectively. Kardia flashed on his palm and condensed on the skin to form the glowing mark of a crooked Shaman hat. It was Ginger’s Custos Zoe. “Get away! Please, don’t make me do it! Please!”

It broke Reiss’ heart to see it. Caron melted. She made another feeble attempt to approach, but when Ginger backed away further, perhaps hoping that the wall would protrude outward to embrace and shield him, she drew back.

Where Reiss and Caron saw a scared, helpless Ginger, however, Ira noticed something else. Something sinister.

He was standing between Ginger and them in the next instant. He snapped his finger and Kardia rushed out from him in numerous, shining dots to strike several points around Ginger’s body.

The plump dragonling gritted his teeth and hugged himself with an “Ow!”

Ira narrowed his eyes. They flashed with an ocean-blue glow.

“Ginger,” he called to the boy.

Ginger looked up at him with a grimace of pain. He saw the gatekeeper as he was: an eccentrically dressed adult dragon and one of the few he could trust.

“Ira?” His expression brightened slightly. “Ira… what… where…?”

“Ginger,” Ira called again. The boy was startled by the change in his tone. “Would you mind stowing away your Kardia?”

The plump dragonling was puzzled by the question, as were the three dragonlings behind him, but he did so anyway. His Custos Zoe fizzled out. He felt defenseless without it, but his eyes were seeing true now. He was no longer in that horrible place. He was surrounded by friends.

“What—” he made to speak, but Ira cut him off.

“Your Kardia… How many Pieyro do you know?” Ira asked him.

Ginger reeled, but he answered swiftly. Ancor had taught him that in strange, inexplicable circumstances, it was wise to constantly feed allies information. It was certainly ideal in the Wild where a lot was unknown and dangerous.

“Pieyro? I know the fundamental three, but I can only manifest Custos Zoe,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Ira seemed doubtful for some reason, but he eventually softened. He sat by the end of the mattress and beckoned Reiss and Caron. The two, their eyes fixed on Ginger, sat by his side. Vassilis was comfortable standing, his arms folded in an angry knot.

Ginger wore a guilty visage when his eyes met Riess and Caron. He had wanted to believe that he had only dreamt of them calling to him from the end of the chamber in the Beginner’s Den, but the looks on their faces refused him that illusion. Well, Caron being here was rebuttal enough, really.

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“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I…I wish I could—”

“Good grief, Ginger,” said Reiss with a crooked smile. He was summoning all his intelligence in humor to lighten the mood but was failing. “What are you even trying to apologize for?”

And sure enough, Ginger didn’t know why he was apologizing. He knew, of course – much to his dread – that he had somehow sleepwalked to the Beginner’s Den, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the explanation for how he did it; he feared to know what he might have done to Reiss to escape.

Caron would have said something, but her words failed her.

“What happened to you?” Vassilis said, his tone unkind. “Apparently this has happened before, but not to this scale. How did you put the entire dormitory to sleep? Using Pieyro for such a wide-scale effect should be impossible for us First Years, much less using one that can subdue an adult dragon. Did you use some kind of Sorcerous spell?”

Ginger shuddered, but not for fear of Vassilis. What did he mean by putting the entire dormitory to sleep?

Ginger would have responded to Vassilis if Caron and Reiss hadn’t turned to the Avecsalot spawn sharply, their Kardia flaring around them, and hissed, “Shut up!”

Vassilis scowled at them and unleashed his own Kardia, but Ira intervened immediately. He rolled his eyes and blew at them, as though trying to clear dust from a glass vase. The three dragonlings’ Kardia was swept away with his breath and they all bottomed out immediately.

“I told you, this isn’t the time for rivalries and petty enmities,” he said when they all donned looks of shock. While the trio cooled off, Ira turned to Ginger.

“Tell us what you remember and then we’ll fill you in about everything else?”

The corner of Ginger’s lip twitched. He wanted to grin at his friends for standing up for him against Vassilis’ aggressive inquiry, but couldn’t muster the strength. He settled for giving them a curt nod.

“I went to sleep… Uh, I had told Reiss to wake me up so I could finish my homework before it was too late. I was having a nice dream, and then the next thing I knew… I was in there.” His eyes quaked. He looked up at Ira and then at Vassilis. He hesitated.

Ira could tell. He sighed.

“You don’t have to mention anything about that,” he said. “Just tell us what you saw. Why were you screaming? You were seeing something that we couldn’t.”

‘They couldn’t see them?’ the dragonling’s eyes drooped.

Ginger searched the mattress for the right words to explain it. He shuddered. His hands raced along his arms and neck. He was sure those sullen dragons were ripping at him, tearing his skin, but he was healed now. There was not a spot of damage on him. Ira must have healed him.

“There were many dragons all around me. Dozens of them. They were pulling me and scratching me,” he said, his face a den for sad shadows. “There were voices filling my head. They were loud and I couldn’t hear myself think. I’ve never felt so… helpless.”

Vassilis was offended by the explanation, it seemed.

“Dozens of dragons?” he said.

“Ginger,” said Reiss with the look of a nurse trying to explain to a panicking patient that they were in a safe place, “you were pulling and scratching at yourself.”

“What else do you remember?” Vassilis suddenly demanded. “None of this explains how you put everyone to sleep and how you made me dream about my mother. Why are you suddenly the victim?”

“Back off!” Reiss barked at him.

“Quiet!” Ira yelled before Vassilis could retort.

“Your mother?” Ginger asked, looking at the Avecsalot dragonling with puzzlement.

“Yes, my mother,” Vassilis said, nostrils flaring. “If you don’t know any Pieyro that can do that, then you must know some Sorcery from that Shaman friend of yours from the Wild, don’t you?”

Ginger gnashed his teeth. He might have been able to summon some fury earlier today, but right now…

“I don’t know any Charms, Vassilis,” he said solemnly. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to use them with Mana Essence. They apply Fetid Essence from the Wild. The rumors you’ve heard… they are lies.”

Vassilis regarded this answer with contempt. He might have been more furious at the calm delivery.

Reiss and Caron backed Ginger up.

“That’s true,” the former said. “And Ginger is new to Mana Essence. He’s only just started to learn about it since coming here.”

“Is that right?” Vassilis dismissed Reiss and continued lancing Ginger with a dark look. “Then what about that incident I heard, about your first Mana Essence Mechanisms and Manipulation Class? I was told you nearly killed half your classmates with some unknown Sorcery.”

“It was an accident!” Caron spiked.

“I tried to apply a Charm I saw my mentor use once,” Ginger said slowly and calmly in contrast. He looked at his hands spiritlessly. “I thought the Charm would work better with Mana Essence since it's better than Fetid Essence. I was wrong. I guess the movements for the Charm matched the ones for some Sorcery spell that cast golden lightning. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Vassilis looked as though he could have eaten Ginger.

“Are you satisfied?” Ira suddenly said, looking at him. The boy clicked his tongue and stabbed something else with his dissatisfied glare.

The gatekeeper turned back to Ginger.

“I can’t exactly identify these dragons you were seeing or make a good inference about them, but you said you heard voices, right? What did the voices say?” he asked.

Ginger hesitated again, but not because of Vassilis’ presence. He hadn’t told everyone everything he’d seen. He wasn’t sure if he’d really seen some of the things he thought he did.

When it came to the things he heard…

“The dragons pulling at me were asking for something. I’m not too sure what it is. It was called the… Perfect Execution,” he said, frowning.

Ira’s eyes flashed dangerously. Everyone saw his hand ball into a fist at once.

Vassilis also had a visceral reaction.

“How in the world would you… You better not be messing around!” he threatened.

Caron, Reiss, and Ginger were the only ones in the dark, it appeared.

“What?” Reiss looked from Ira to Vassilis. “What is that? What’s the Perfection Execution?”

Reiss might asked Vassilis how to open a door. It was written in the curved lines drawn on both ends of his nose.

Ira was more liberal with the answer, but he kept his shining eyes on the puzzled Ginger.

“The Perfect Execution is a Pieyro of the highest order, an application of Kardia so advanced that its practice has been discarded, the method to use it buried in old texts inaccessible to the public,” he said. “It was devised by the Ancient Elder Avecsalot and adopted by the other three Elders when they attempted to kill the Ebony Dragon, Draggard-Phoenix.”