"How much do you know about us, Chief Merensen?", Cale spoke up after a while of silence. He had crossed his legs and propped the arm with which he held the glass on the backrest, while he looked challengingly at his friend's father. Ninett had made contradictory statements and Cale was very much aware of.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"About us High-Magicians, how much do you really know?"

Cale almost shouted to his counterpart that he had long known what he was hiding. He even had a dim premonition, but wanted his visitor to make the statement and realization on his own.

"I don't quite understand what you're talking about."

"I think you do. The Igrikum is also just an ability of the gods that was handed to us via direct path. It's different from abilities like the Wrath of the Gods, isn't it?"

You could see the confident man suddenly become nervous. Neither the fact about the true ability of the Holy Mana nor the history of the Thormods had made Ninett Merensen pale as much as the fact that Cale asked him directly if he was working with the dragons. While Cale had long known that the dragons had completely broken off contact with the humans, that didn't mean the chiefs Merensen didn't know how things used to be. The origin of his ability is the dragons and he had to know about that, after all the stories he had told.

"What exactly do you want me to tell you, High-Magician Leuen?"

"I'm asking you who bequeathed you your abilities", Cale spoke it verbatim, hoping that the chiefs finally understood the insinuations. But by all appearances, the man did long ago.

"I think that's enough for today. It may..."

"Sit down", Cale directed sharply. Chief Merensen had been about to rise when Cale interrupted him. Stopping halfway up, he looked toward Cale, who set the glass back on the table and gestured with a hand for him to take a seat. Ninett had unwittingly handed over the reins of the conversation to Cale and now felt the full force of that decision.

"High-Magician Leuen, I can give you..."

"Dragons. They were dragons", Cale spoke it out directly now, leaving Ninett with no other choice. He couldn't risk Cale spreading false information about Frignez and the dragons, much less Altona and Frignez getting into a fight. If it went now, that was the end of him. Again he dropped into the chair and sighed, while Cale rested his head on one hand and waited for the man to look him in the eye. After a while of silence, Ninett did so, which made Cale smile. "Please don't be so spooked. I never said that Frignez was an enemy of humanity."

"I'm really not in a position to talk to you about that, High-Magician Leuen. You may be a friend of my daughter, but that doesn't mean I am."

"Ninett...", Cale replied nonetheless, which caused the man to scowl. "... Have you heard of the events that a dragon rider appeared on the plains?"

"It was no one from Frignez, I can assure you", the chiefs quickly countered.

"I know. I was that dragon rider."

The man's scowl made a complete turn to a surprised expression as he stared half-open-mouthed at the High-Magician.

"What?"

"I know the origin behind the abilities, and I also know that the dragons are not enemies."

"..."

Chief Ninett Merensen did not produce any comment. There must have been countless questions forming in his mind right now, but there was one thing he understood immediately.

"The dragons are your allies, of which you had told before?"

"Indeed."

"By the Holy Mana..."

"This is information that the Magistrat intends to pass on to you, Sylve and Winstest in the New Year as well. The leader of the dragons, Velence, had mentioned a few days ago that he wished to cooperate with us."

"When you asked about the Holy Mana, I didn't expect that it had already come to this. Who knows about it?"

"Only us High-Magicians and the dragons, of course", Cale replied calmly, sitting down neatly again after the situation had relaxed.

"This is unbelievable."

"It's only going to get worse, believe me. What do you think, can you answer my question about the destruction of the abilities now?", Cale carefully changed the subject. He didn't want to give away too much about the future the world was facing.

"You can't destroy the ability itself, at least I wouldn't know otherwise. Even if you were to destroy the mana circuit, the ability remains and can be inherited."

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"I always assumed that Holy Mana is not hereditary, so why do you say that abilities are?"

"Holy Mana is also hereditary, it's just that it's very rare. Normally it would skip 7 or 8 generations before it would reappear in a person, Aletta is a big exception here. This is also the case with the other abilities. It depends on how dominant the ability is and how likely it is to be expressed in the offspring. It is like with eye colors. It is possible that both parents are brown-eyed, but the child gets blue eyes because some ancestor, perhaps grandmother, had blue eyes. A pure matter of luck, except with you High-Magicians. There the gods themselves have intervened and given you the purest form of an ability."

"Does it mean that my children could also create such barrier like me?", Cale brought out incredulously, automatically wondering if Grischa's son could be affected as well.

"The possibility exists, yes. However, it would no longer be an Igrikum that has its own mana circuit and can draw on nature's mana. It becomes part of the body."

"I gave my Igrikum to a friend, what about him? Do you know how the ability would behave with him?", Cale finally brought forth, having to remember how he had given the Igrikum to William back then. Had Cale long since become such a dragon, passing on his ability?

"You passed it... passed it on? Isn't that pretty dangerous for you?"

"That's what I thought, too. It was always said that a mage couldn't use his Igrikum if the other would, but that hasn't been the case", Cale finally relates his realization a little over a month ago. At that time, when William had used his mana without being asked, he had felt the connection to him, but had been able to continue using nature's mana himself. It was almost as if William had merely used him as a bridge to make the ability his own.

"You truly are like a dragon", the chief commented, causing Cale to frown at him. "If it is still usable for you, wouldn't it mean that your friend has made the ability his own?"

"Is it that simple?"

"I don't know, you'd have to ask a dragon or the gods", Chiefs Merensen replied, which made Cale sigh and sit back. For a moment, he stared at the ceiling as he tried to comprehend what he had actually done. Was it possible that he had transformed the future descendants of the royal house into people with the power of the strongest barrier in the world? Could he still remove the Igrikum?

"I have one more question, if I may", Cale announced after some time, turning his gaze back to the tall man, who had also relaxed and leaned back. "How is it that you don't consider the dragons to be enemies?"

"In Frignez there is something we call the Book of Truth. It documents humanity's past, and in this, of course, the dragons were mentioned. That's how I know that the dragons had separated from the humans, but never attacked during the centuries. It was easy to see that the humans themselves were the real problem."

"Fascinating. Is there any chance I could read it?"

"Perhaps, once you are in Frignez. I can't promise you that, though. It's out of my hands."

"It's only fair...", Cale muttered. The previous chiefs must have documented past events in this book, and accordingly not everyone had access to it. If Chief Merensen did not possess it and Chief Heriog, as Cale had the privilege of knowing him, probably did not either, then Chief Clensen must currently be the protector of this book.

"I'd like to ask you something, too."

"Go ahead", Cale replied politely. He had all the answers he had been looking for. Now he finally understood where the Thormods came from, who they were exactly, and what they wanted. Probably it wasn't necessarily revenge against the people they considered nobility, but rather the fact that they wanted to live. If it had never been noticed over the centuries that an entire colony was moving underground, then these people were definitely afraid of being discovered. Perhaps there were simply too many of them that they had no other choice. The events at Tsuke might have had just as much to do with it.

"How do you know Jonat Paseru?"

"Swordmaster Jonat Paseru? Did Miguel tell you about that?", Cale replied playfully, trying to hide how he was considering nipping the subject in the bud.

"More like his father, Chief Jarsep Heriog. I hardly knew the man, but he had been friends with Jarsep for a long time. Jarsep had always said that Jonat was the brother he never had. They were like family to each other, sharing everything. When Miguel had told that Jonat had another student, he was beside himself."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Were you lying?", the chiefs finally blurted out, which made Cale seriously consider claiming it was all made up. But then he would lose the trust of the others in addition to his credibility, and to make matters worse, he would have no explanation as to why he was fighting like Master Paseru.

"No, I wasn't lying. I was once Master Paseru's student a long time ago", he finally explained hesitantly. He was in a bad situation and had to hope that the chiefs would give up.

"Will you tell me when exactly?"

He did not give up, which is why Cale sighed. He was not allowed to mix different lives, he had always made sure of that, especially with William. He almost felt a little foolish not to have thought more carefully about the consequences of his words.

"Do you know why we call the Eldest 'Eldest' and not him by his name?", Cale asked, consulting the last option he had.

"No, I don't. I had actually always wondered about that."

"I had asked you before how much you actually knew about us High-Magicians. I thought maybe the book had given you a clue, but that apparently wasn't the case."

"What exactly are you getting at?"

"We are old, Chief Merensen", Cale calmly admitted, moving to an upright position.

"Old?", the man repeated, irritated.

"Yes. The Eldest is called Eldest because he is truly one of the oldest people in the world. We High-Magicians are no longer normal people, we have an extremely long life expectancy, you must know."

"You guys are getting older than normal people? How much are we talking about?", chief Merensen replied, accepting Cale's statement without giving it much thought.

"What do you think?", Cale countered with a question that silenced Ninett. "How old do you think I am?"

"According to Aletta, you're a little younger than Miguel, but.... if you're already asking like that, then it's probably not true."

"I've been alive for a good 300 years."

"How...", Ninett raised hesitantly. "How can that be? Then why do you look like..."

"Don't be swayed by a person's appearance. We High-Magicians stop aging once we pass the 3rd stage", he explained calmly. At the statement, Cale also let his real eyes appear, which is why the chiefs literally stared at him. "I cannot tell you when exactly I was Master Paseru's disciple, please forgive me. But I can assure you that my master never willingly lied to Chief Heriog. I know that he was important to him and also that he saw Miguel like a son."