By the time Cale got back to his apartment a good hour later, the birds had flown out. None had remained, which unexpectedly pleased Cale. He made himself a large cup of tea before going into his study and opening the window.

<"What are you doing?">

Cale put his cup down and cleared his desk aside before pulling out some large sheets of paper and pulling out a small book from his bottom drawer.

<"Class scheduling. I'm supposed to start teaching the townspeople about the creatures next week.">

<"How clever of you humans">, Fengari replied, jumping up onto the windowsill before lying down in the sun and enjoying the wind on her fur. <"Are you going to stay here all day?">.

<"For now, yes.">

<"Boring">, Fengari admitted, yawning. This was the first time Cale wondered if and when a dragon slept, and more importantly, what it ate.

<"I did warn you">, Cale replied as he pulled the chronicles out of the rain to his left and then peered at Fengari. Peacefully, she lay a few feet from him and didn't reply to the statement, so Cale breathed a sigh of relief.

Cale began to focus on his work. In a good two weeks, he was to address all the creatures once and suggest to the inhabitants what their strengths and weaknesses were. Therefore, he first thought about the order in which he should begin, which led very quickly to a result. The creatures, which were often encountered, he would check off first.

Quietly, he began to go through his notes, jotting down randomly in the little book what he had to say about each creature. Cale was so focused on his work that he didn't notice the sun setting in the distance and his notes abruptly multiplying. He had a detailed sketch of the creatures on each page, which he planned to paint on the large sheets afterwards. But after writing a few dozen pages, he somehow realized that the drawings themselves would not be enough. It was hard to imagine the actual appearance of the creature, not to mention the sounds and scents some of them gave off. Involuntarily, Cale's gaze fell to his hands before he turned his attention back to Fengari.

The hour had passed and the little dragon in cat form slept peacefully by the window as darkness caught up with them and the city began to glow.

Cale asked himself if he could change the exterior of Fengari into a creature, before wondering if he couldn't do the same to himself. Unintentionally, another question ran through his mind: could he change his exterior into that of a dragon?

As if the Eldest had read his thoughts, he reported to him over the crystal.

"We need to talk. The rumors about the dragons have reached the Magistrat", he announced quietly. Cale sighed and leaned back in his chair. Inevitably, his gaze landed on the little cat.

"Gladly, I have a few things to get off my chest, too. I'm in my apartment."

"I'm on my way."

Fengari seemed to have heard him, because she woke up again and stretched extensively before silently sitting down and enjoying the view of the city.

"We are getting a visitor", Cale explained after a few moments, looking at the mess before his eyes. He had quite a few notes open, so he wouldn't forget anything and visibly lost track of how many new pages he had written. Cale had gotten pretty far, even if he did revise his lesson plan on occasion, but basically he would eventually tell people what he knew off the top of his head about the creatures.

"Someone exciting?"

"The Eldest is coming, so yeah. It's going to be exciting. I'll tell him about you, Fengari."

"Very nice!", Fengari replied delightedly, straightening up. She could sense, as Cale could, that the Eldest was approaching his home. Cale wordlessly got up and opened his work door before the Eldest knocked on his front door and then opened it.

"Good evening", Cale greeted the mage, who just entered and locked the door behind him. The Eldest wore his long uniform as usual and had his blond, slightly wavy hair down, which was as long as his beard of the same color. His blue eyes lingered on Cale as he returned the greeting and removed his uniform. The two High-Magicians had completely discarded their usual shenanigans and met like old acquaintances. The powerful mage of the world showed his true side to Cale and Cale did the same.

"The rumors of the dragons in the east are the top topic in town", the Eldest explained as he sat down in the vacant chair across from Cale's table and glanced briefly at Fengari before continuing. "The three mages you told me about were here in the Magistrat earlier and told the story in more detail to the council. They say that a powerful mage joined the dragons and they also told what happened in the creature plain. The two adults were quite scared when they told us about it because they suspected that the dragon mage was one of us."

Amused, Cale laughed out loud as Fengari came down from the windowsill and jumped onto his table.

"Was a little uncomfortable watching Castero make it rock solidly clear to them that no High-Magician is on the side of the dragons."

"So they don't know that it was me?", Cale gave questioningly, though he knew the answer to that.

"Of course not. I didn't tell anyone about it, even though Aaron didn't seem particularly convinced. You talked to him today, didn't you?"

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Cale nodded in agreement and caressed Fengari with his hand, who unexpectedly enjoyed the massage and lay down on the table.

"Yes. He confronted me and I told him a few things. He knows I'm older than you, Damian, and he also knows that Neonar died."

"You talked about that?", the Eldest admitted, slightly horrified, but Cale remained calm.

"It was a long conversation. Aaron is aware that I know something about the past and won't share it with him, but he has more or less accepted it. I didn't mention your name. It's just that the whole thing got me thinking."

"About?"

"I think we were a little wrong about Aaron."

Wordlessly, the Eldest looked at Cale, watching him pet the black cat without giving it a glance. The mage considered for a moment before leaning forward, propping his elbow on the table.

"You think I misjudged him?"

"I believe that at one time you were correct, but times have changed. Aaron was unexpectedly honest with me today, and I got the feeling that he was uncomfortable with the past, almost as if he was embarrassed that anyone knew about it. Which I can't say why he was suddenly so open about it."

Fengari turned on her side so that Cale was now caressing her soft belly, which made him glance at his hands in surprise.

<"You like that?">

<"I'd be lying if I denied it">, Fengari quickly admitted, which made Cale smile. He was currently petting a dragon - how abstruse the fact itself was.

"What exactly do you expect from me, Caleb?", the Eldest replied calmly, supporting his head with his hand as he watched the black cat.

"I don't expect anything. It's your choice what you do with this information. Your life is affected by it, not mine."

"You can't say that anymore."

"How exactly do you mean?", Cale gave surprised to words and stopped moving, so Fengari touched Cale's hand with her claws to prompt him to continue.

"What do you think about telling the whole story to the others?"

"The time travel or the dragons?"

"Both."

Cale sighed and looked down at Fengari, who was looking at him with wide eyes. When he continued to pet her afterwards, she gave a satisfying smile and remained silent.

"I don't know. I've told Grischa and you saw what happened."

"Vonstetten's condition has a completely different reason and you know it. I've talked about it a bit with the healers on Frignez and they assume that he's blocking his memories to avoid being reminded of the pain he felt. This has nothing to do with you at all."

<"I kind of feel sorry for your little friend.">, Fengari suddenly spoke up

<"Why that?">

<"He must be more bothered by the memory gap than anyone else, which is why he must be happy as a child for every bit of information. If you would just tell him what's going on, then he wouldn't have to force himself to do it, and probably that would take care of your whole problem, too">

The completely new way of looking at things made Cale fall back into his chair, which is why he also pulled his hand along. Fengari didn't put up with it, straightening up and jumping onto his lap to continue being cuddled, which Cale did. She told him offhandedly that he should just tell Grischa the truth again to make his headache go away. But that was just a theory.

"The other High-Magicians already know there's more going on than we're letting them know. Sooner or later they're going to find out, whether you like it or not."

Cale didn't want them to. He was afraid of what would happen if he confided the story to several more. On the other hand, he's already reached the point where anything could happen.

"Are you going to tell them the whole story about the Apostles, too? Don't you think the whole thing is a little... dangerous?"

"It is, through and through. But somehow they also have a right to know what's hiding behind the curtain. And by now, I'd argue that they're mature enough to do so."

<"It almost sounds like the other Apostles don't know they're Apostles!">

<"They don't, Fengari. Only 6 of us know the story, and of those, only the Eldest and I know your part of the truth.">

<"That's awful!">, Fengari exclaimed, abruptly straightening up. With her bright eyes, the looked at Cale forcefully, causing him to sigh inwardly and look to the Eldest.

"I'm not very found of just giving this information to the masses, Damian. I'm already bad at assessing what's going to happen currently because Sefra has changed time greatly, but if everyone suddenly knows about it, it'll be simply impossible."

"Then focus on just a few. Ander, Risztus, Aaron and maybe even Castero. The Council should be a good place to start, Vonstetten anyway", the Eldest of the line enumerated and grew quieter. "And your friends, too, Caleb. You live with them and they have a lot of contact with Aaron and Vonstetten. It's going to be hard to hide that from them in the long run."

<"The man is quite right, human child!">

Cale sighed and used his hand to push Fengari aside, who bristled and then jumped onto the table. Angrily, she glared at Cale, but kept her promise to behave like a cat.

"I can understand why this is hard for you. I feel the same way with Aaron, but I'm willing to take the risk if you are, too", the Eldest explained, extending his hand forward to lure the cat. Fengari got a kick out of it and jumped on his arm before rubbing herself against his hand with pleasure and dropping her whole face.

Cale didn't pay much attention to what the dragon was doing. Rather, he was trying to list the benefits of letting the 9 people in on the secret. He had great doubts that they would believe him, but most of all he was afraid of how William would react. The young man already knew quite a bit about him and hadn't been flinching from it so far. But how would he react if Cale told him that he had intentionally befriended them?

Discomfort spread through him as he watched the Eldest play with the cat. Somehow the two of them were right, but at the same time they were not. They were asking him to openly address the problem without really understanding how Cale felt about it. The High-Magician sat thoughtfully in his chair, rubbing his head as he thought about this morning's discussion. It was true that he was already having trouble keeping the secret to himself, but what would it look like in a few years? William and Grischa know they are missing something. What if their curiosity changed to suspicion?

"Damian", Cale raised after a while, which is why the blond-haired man looked up and the cat also followed his gaze curiously. "The cat is Fengari, one of the dragons I told you about."

Slowly, the Eldest turned his gaze to the black cat he had just been playing with and watched as it set out and stared at him with its eyes as bright as the moon

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Fengari", she announced kindly, but the Eldest abruptly jerked his hand aside and jumped away from the table, startled. He knocked over the chair in the action and stopped at a safe distance with his hand outstretched and right next to the door before staring wide-eyed at the black cat that had just spoken to him.

"By my beard...", the Eldest nervously gave voice and Cale could hear that he was getting scared from one moment to the next. He held his hand in front of him as if begging the dragon not to eat him, while breathing frantically.

"I expected such a reaction from you back then, human child", Fengari interjected with amusement, while Cale looked at her shaking his head. The dragon seemed to enjoy scaring someone like that, which made Cale think twice about letting anyone in on Fengari's existence. But admittedly, even Cale found the reaction a bit amusing. He had never seen the Eldest so scared before, so he memorized his face well and smiled.

"It's okay, she'll behave", Cale declared, dropping Fengari's illusion. Fengari shook her body and demonstratively spread her beautiful wings, but the sight only frightened the Eldest more. Cale rubbed the small head of the dragon with his finger, which at the same time stretched against it and settled against his hand like a pet.

"About you making contact with the dragons, I... meant that differently."