The next days were very uneventful for Rakon, and after his experience with death, he was very grateful for the boredom. Except it wasn’t really boring to him. Everything still seemed so new to him. He had never experienced this kind of cold before. As a dragon, his body would generate so much more heat than his flimsy human one. They were traveling north and at the same time the days were growing shorter. Both of these things meant that every morning was freezing, and Rakon loved it.

The first day they set out, they went straight to the village nearby so that Rakon could return the bag that was stolen. The old man was so grateful he cried. Rakon felt uncomfortable, he had never had somebody actually be this glad to see him, nor had he been able to do something for somebody that they could not do for themselves. He had spent his entire life with Emberheart, he was the most capable being he had ever met. There was nothing that anybody could do for him. Loch was a close second of course, but it was hard to beat a dragon in anything.

Their journey to the capital was not very long, but again Rakon was not used to many things, and riding a horse was one of them. At first the animal was very skittish around him, and for good reason. In his other form he could take the thing in two bites, but as it was he felt very silly riding something that he would normally eat. It seemed as if the horse could tell. He soon got the hang of it however, and the horse eventually calmed down. He also enjoyed the simple companionship that being close to another living creature brought.

The journey to the capital passed without incident, and Rakon loved seeing the countryside. He had spent his entire life in the forest, minus the occasional trip to the southern volcanoes with Emberheart, but he had never been this far inland. Everything felt so different and new, and he was starting to actually enjoy being a human for once. While it still could not compare to the joy and magnificence of being a dragon, nor the freedom of flying and the power of his wings, he decided that there were some benefits to being a human. Some of these things he would not have called benefits half a dozen moons ago. Benefits such as traveling more slowly, or having softer skin. His body was capable of feeling so much more in this form, it was an incredible sensation.

Firstly he felt more connected to living beings, this was a new feeling for him. He had no real friends to connect to, other than the occasional dragon he had met at the southern volcanoes, but he wouldn’t really call them friends anyway. His companionship with Loch was so very refreshing to him. The only thing that he could compare it to was his relationship with Emberheart, but it was definitely not the same.

Secondly, while his hearing and sight were somewhat dulled, he could do much more with his hands. Dragon scales are incredibly tough, and even the softer parts of their flesh are known for their durability. His human hands were capable of feeling so much, it amazed him at what he could do. Carving, weeding, even cooking occasionally was all possible. However the latter never seemed to work out for him like it did Loch.

Lastly he felt more connected to the earth than ever before, more connected to everything around him really. Rakon wondered why that would be, he thought that he would feel more connected to his element in his dragon form than anything. Wasn’t the dragon the most powerful creature in the world? Perhaps it had something to do with spending less time in the skies and more time on the ground, he mused.

If he thought he could get a break from training while they were traveling, he was dead wrong. Loch had them sparring every night and going through different patterns with his staff. Rakon still could never land a blow, and he saw almost no improvement in his work. Every once in a while Loch would give a grunt of approval, and Rakon supposed that meant he was doing well.

Loch was also having Rakon work on his control with his element as well. During the day while they were riding, Rakon was in charge of erasing their tracks. Rakon hadn’t realized how difficult it was to maintain such focused control over earth. He had been using earth for decades and would have thought he would be the one teaching Loch a thing or two. Turns out it is much easier to do large bursts of earth magic with no control than it is to do very specific things with earth. So he erased their tracks, among other things. It was a little easier to track his progress in this regard. He would have multiple stones float above his head and see how long he could hold concentration. As the time progressed Loch would make him add stones or make them rotate around his head. This was something he could measure and therefore he grew excited as he saw improvement. Loch was quick to stifle his enthusiasm when it grew too much, for as Loch always said,

“An excited man is a distracted man, and a distracted man is a dead one.”

In Rakon’s opinion, Loch was too serious by far. Rakon had grown to greatly respect the man, and trusted his judgment. So he did as he said.

The night before they reached the capital, Loch didn’t pull out his staff like normal. Instead, he stayed sitting by the fire.

“Tomorrow we will reach the capital.” Loch said, keeping his gaze at the fire. “You haven’t really asked me any questions about it, are you nervous? From what you told me, you lived a very sheltered life before you met me.”

Rakon thought for a moment. He always struggled to keep his story straight with Loch, one of the problems with being a terrible liar he supposed. In truth he had many questions about the capital. He wasn’t sure what he could ask however, as he was told that the humans in the capital are the most vile of them all. Stories were told of how they would sacrifice each other in order to gain greater power and that all they wanted was to become the next ruler. After meeting Loch, Rakon had suspicions that not all of this was true, he just hadn’t quite figured out how to ask Loch what was true and what was not.

“Yes I do have questions about the capital, I was not allowed to leave home at all while I lived with my parents, so I don’t know much about the cities out here. Do the people here,” he hesitated, not sure how to phrase the question. “Are they kind to newcomers?” In response to Loch’s raised eyebrow he hastily added, “It’s just, I know that some people can have certain… beliefs, and might treat outsiders very poorly.” That would have to do, he thought to himself.

Loch rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Well I wouldn't say that you’d be in any danger, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s true that the city dwellers are a little different than those of us that live out in the country. However, they all uphold the law, well most of them do. There is crime in any city, as you already found out,” Loch chuckled, “and while I generally don’t like cities, I think that you will enjoy it here.”

It was quiet in the air, the only sound was crickets and a soft breeze. Neither said a word, both reluctant to break the peace that the silence brought. Loch spoke after a moment.

“I have a group of friends in the city that I’m going to meet up with. Tomorrow we can spend the day exploring, it will be a good experience for you to see some new things. Tomorrow evening however, I will need to have that meeting with my friends while you stay in our room. I’ll pay for us to spend a couple nights in an inn, so you won’t have to worry about that.”

Rakon wondered why Loch wanted him to stay in his room, but figured it wasn’t smart to wander around an unfamiliar city after dark. They didn’t say much after that, and each sat with their thoughts for the remainder of the evening until gradually, they let sleep take them.

The next morning they reached the city gates. The road traversed through some hilly parts, and when they reached the top of one of the hills the city’s full glory was put on display. It was more magnificent than anything Rakon had ever seen. Granted, Rakon had not seen much. There are no man made creations on the southern isles, only the red dragons call that place their home. And while Rakon spent most of his time in the southern part of Arulea, he had only seen very small cities and villages. The city held a castle at its center with three unique large towers around it. The towers formed the points of a triangle around the castle, one at the north, one at the southeast, and one at the southwest. Each tower had smaller buildings surrounding them that seemed to match the style. There was also a moat that cut off the towers and castle from the rest of the city, Rakon guessed that was where the king lived.

As he approached the city gates, he was in awe of the sheer size of everything. Being a dragon naturally gives one a sense that humans and everything about them are small. This was not the case here. The gates were large enough that Emberheart could walk through them without ducking his head. Granted he would have to tuck in his wings a little, but still, the ability that the humans possessed to build astounded Rakon.

Rakon nearly walked straight into Loch’s back as there was so much to take in all at once, he was not looking where he was going. Loch had been forced to stop by a guard that was manning the gates. This particular guard looked bored out of his mind. Slightly overweight and balding, even Rakon could tell this man was not happy with his early morning shift.

“What’s your business here today?” the guard half grumbled rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Loch gave him an easy smile, “My nephew and I are here visiting my sister, we expect to spend some time inside your beautiful walls if that’s okay.”

“Names?” replied the guard.

“My name is Richard, and this is my nephew Joseph.” Loch kept an easy expression on his face while the guard wrote a few words on a piece of parchment he kept at his side. Rakon kept his face blank, but his mind was reeling with questions.

The guard rubbed some sleep from his eyes and sighed before saying, “Alright go on through, enjoy your stay here and don’t cause any trouble or you’ll be dealt with by the Crown. That is all.” It all sounded very rehearsed and monotone.

Loch gave a polite nod and put his arm around Rakon’s shoulders, pulling him through the large gateway. After they had created enough distance from the guard, Rakon asked quietly.

“Why didn’t you give the guard our correct names?” He was confused at the interaction they had just had.

“I’ve learned the hard way that it is usually better to go unnoticed in large cities. Authorities tend to make life a little more difficult unfortunately, and while I greatly appreciate the work that they do, I do not always agree with their methods.” Loch stopped talking for a moment while they passed a row of vendors before continuing. “I found that it’s best if people don’t know my name, afterall I am just a simple farmer and I like to keep to myself.”

Rakon was positive there was more to this story, but since he was pretty sure that Loch was suspicious of his own background he decided to accept Loch’s story, but keep his eyes open in the meantime. After all, Loch had given him all the reason in the world to trust him, he had trained him and taught him. When Rakon first decided to explore the human world he thought it would be simple. Loch is the only reason that he has been able to stay as a human for so long and been able to learn so much.

Loch brought them to an inn with a stable so that they had a place to leave their horses. They left their bags in their room and locked the door with a key that the innkeeper gave them. After a quick meal and their load lightened, they walked out into the city to explore. Loch had been there before and claimed that it wasn’t worth the energy it took to walk around the city, but Rakon was adamant. His first few months as a human had been spent confined to a farm, and he was not going to waste this opportunity. Loch begrudgingly took him around the city to satiate Rakon’s curiosity.

There was everything one could ever think of here. Shops, performers, traveling merchants, and taverns. Rakon was amazed at every turn. While there was so much to be excited about, there was also a lot of trash in the city. More than a few homeless people could be seen in alleys, covered in filth and begging for coins. Rakon wasn’t sure how these people had gotten here, so he asked Loch.

“Why are they begging? Well, it could be that they were thieves, and the Crown took all their possessions as punishment. Sometimes it’s just bad luck and misfortune. More often than not though”, he scowled to himself, “the king gets a little too greedy for his own good and raises taxes more than these poor people can afford.” He shook his head in disgust. “Nothing is worse than a man in power without empathy, I’ll tell you that.”

Rakon digested this new information quietly to himself. He had been taught that all humans were more or less evil, and they deserved to be killed by dragons. So far he had learned nothing that supported this information. Rather, he had begun to think that humans were a lot like dragons in many regards. Some were good, some were bad. Some acted poorly when they had more power, while others acted justly. Rakon felt a rush of excitement, this was new information that dragons had never had! He wondered if this could change the way that dragons thought about humans, if maybe they could start to repair relations. His thoughts turned to Emberheart and how adamant he was that humans were the worst thing that ever happened to dragonkind. It would take a miracle for Emberheart and the other elder dragons to change their mind about humans. They were centuries old after all, they’ve had many bad experiences that cemented their negative beliefs about humans.

They had spent the day in the city, Rakon trying not to ask too many questions and Loch shaking his head and sighing repeatedly. They returned to the inn for their evening meal and Rakon actually decided he had seen enough for the day. His feet ached from walking so much and his brain hurt from all the new information that he had taken in. Rakon was grateful for the chance to sit down and relax for a change.

“This is where I leave you then,” Loch said to a surprised Rakon. “You remember I told you last night that I was going to see some of my old friends? I very rarely come to the city, but when I do I always make time to see them.” Rakon continued to eat his food, knowing that he would be expected to wait behind while Loch went back out in the city. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours, so when you’re done eating just go back up to the room and practice reading.” With that Loch planted his hands on the table and stood up. He left the inn pulling his cloak up over his head, obscuring his face completely.

As soon as the door shut, Rakon hastily threw back the rest of his soup, only lightly scalding his throat, and hurried after Loch. He pulled his hood up high as well, so that if Loch did happen to turn around, perhaps he would not be recognized.

Rakon opened the door to the outside air and looked left and right, hoping he hadn’t already lost Loch. He was able to catch a glimpse of Loch’s cloak disappearing down the street. There weren’t many people out at this time, most were home and eating, but there were still a decent amount of stragglers about so that Rakon had to be careful not to lose Loch among them.

Being careful, Rakon kept his distance and did his best to act like an ordinary person walking home after a day of work. The decision to follow Loch was not spontaneous. During the day, Rakon had thought that Loch had been acting a little strangely. Not giving the guards his real name was strange, Loch never cared what others thought of him, why hide a name? Coming to the city at all was strange too, Loch had everything he needed on the farm, what was the reason? And in the months that Rakon had known him, the only time Loch had let Rakon out of his sight was for the disastrous shopping trip that nearly ended with Rakon’s death. So this decision to follow Loch was not something he chose lightly. He was a naturally curious being, yes, but he also needed to know what Loch was up to and why he didn’t trust him with whatever information he was hiding.

Rakon hurried toward the alley that he saw Loch turn down, doing his best to look inconspicuous. He peeked his head around the corner, but saw nobody. Heart sinking, he began to walk forward while looking for any trace that Loch might have left.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Looking for something?” He heard a voice growl behind him.

Rakon spun around with his staff up only to have it knocked to the side by the cloaked figure's arm. Without hesitation Rakon allowed the momentum to spin his body slightly and bring up his right leg in a kick aimed at his assailant's head. He could hardly believe it when he found his foot stuck in midair, in the stranger’s hand. The man promptly swept Rakon’s single leg from under him and sent him crashing down. Before Rakon had a chance to get up the assailant was over him, calmly stepping on his wrist and forcing Rakon to let go of his staff.

“I don’t know what I’m more mad about, that you still can’t fight worth cow dung, that you can’t follow me without waking up half the city, or that you explicitly disobeyed me.” The man threw back his hood to show Loch’s face, complete with terrifying glare.

Rakon stood up once Loch had stepped off his wrist, and sheepishly picked up his staff.

“I just wanted to see what you were doing,” he mumbled, not daring to meet Loch’s gaze.

“Did you ever think that I didn’t want you to see what I was doing for a reason? Just maybe, that I was doing this for your own good?” Loch hissed angrily.

Rakon tried to keep his voice from rising as he felt his face redden in frustration. “Did you ever think that I don’t need to be kept safe? That I’m more capable than you think I am?”

“Yes of course,” Loch snorted, “you’ve proven just how capable you are, I’m very impressed.” He said dryly.

“Please” Rakon begged, “just let me come. I promise I won’t get in the way of anything.” He looked down and finished softly, “I just don’t want to be left behind.”

Loch turned away and walked down the alley a short ways. He took a deep breath and paced back and forth muttering to himself. Finally he walked back up to Rakon.

“Alright, you can come, but you are not to say a single word the entire night, do you understand?” Rakon nodded emphatically. “You do not speak, you do not react to what is said, and you most definitely do not say anything about yourself. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” was all Rakon could say breathlessly, too excited and nervous to say more. Loch actually let me come! He thought Loch was going to send him home, but somehow he actually convinced him. He mimed locking his lips shut and throwing away the key, it was an expression of sorts he picked up from Loch himself while at the farm, and he thought it would help Loch feel better about his decision.

Rakon wasn’t sure if it helped, because Loch just sighed and turned away, shaking his head yet again. He watched as Loch started feeling around at some of the bricks a couple handwidths above head height on one of the walls in the alley. After a few moments he gave one of the bricks a push, which swiveled ninety degrees as if on an axel, which now resulted in half the brick poking out into the street. Rakon watched in confusion as Loch summoned some water out of his waterskin and sent a single droplet through the newly created opening after which he pushed the brick back into place.

Rakon opened his mouth to ask a question, but quickly shut it as Loch raised his eyebrow at him as if reminding him of his promise to not talk. Rakon already had so many questions racing through his mind, and he was sure it was only going to get worse as the night continued.

Rakon jumped in surprise as a section of the wall just to the right of the special brick swung open like a door. The bricks broke apart from each other seamlessly, Rakon had no idea that there was a door there. Loch put his fingers to his lips as a quick reminder to keep silent, then led the way into the dark opening.

As soon as he entered Rakon felt uneasy. He couldn’t see a thing, what if this wasn’t such a great idea? He had no idea where Loch had taken him, what if Loch was a criminal of some kind? He reminded himself why he wanted to go, how tired he was of being left behind. He stood up a little straighter and waited for something to happen, keeping his tight grip on his staff.

He felt a small rush of air letting him know that the door had closed behind him. Only a moment later candles were lit in all corners of the room, by a fire user he assumed, causing some of his fears to subside. He stood at the entrance to a single room, partially hidden behind Loch. The room was larger than he thought, there was a single table in the middle with chairs and a few strangers surrounding it. He noticed a door on the other side of the room and guessed that there was either a back exit or perhaps this hideout was larger than he originally thought.

There were five strangers sitting around the table, and they all looked surprised to see Rakon standing behind Loch. Rakon glanced at the strangers, trying to take everything in at once. There was one man that looked like he was about as old as Loch, he had a graying beard and was seriously balding. Then there were two women and two men that looked to be in their third or fourth decade. One of the women had a mess of scars on one side of her face and dark black hair that reminded Rakon of the night sky.

“Lochlan!” the older man called jovially, standing up and coming to greet Loch. He reached out and gave him a firm hug, then stepped back to look him up and down.

“You’ve gained weight since last I saw you! You old rascal,” he laughed out loud. He turned to Rakon and stretched out his hand. “And who might you be?”

“This is Rakon, my apprentice.” Loch said quickly before Rakon could even open his mouth. “He has come today to observe, nothing more.” Rakon shook the man’s hand firmly and gave him a polite nod.

“Ah, Lochlan you old softy, I thought we said we weren’t taking any youngins?” one of the women said from where she was lounging with her feet up on the table.

“Rakon shows great promise, I assure you. His power over earth is remarkable for one so young, and his skill with the staff is improving daily. You can also speak openly around him, I vouch for his silence.” The members around the table exchanged glances with one another at his words.

“An earth user, is that right?” the old man next to him said, slapping him on the shoulder. “Well, that certainly is something, isn’t it? Come on, have a seat you two, and let's get acquainted with young Rakon.”

Rakon sat down next to Loch and the woman with the scars, who’s name he found out was Teresa. The old man that embraced Loch when they entered was called Jeremiah, and Rakon was too intrigued at all that was going on to remember the others’ names.

“So let’s get down to business,” Jeremiah said once introductions were out of the way. “Rakon, Lochlan said we can trust you, and so we do. However, if anything we say reaches the ears of our enemies, you will be held accountable. You have been warned.” He continued speaking with barely a pause.

“From what Jynx has told us,” he nodded at the woman without the scars, “we believe that there is some suspicious activity going on within the castle itself. We received reports of an herb being smuggled into the castle in the dead of night two weeks ago. One of our informants was able to get a good look of it while it was being smuggled and unfortunately had never seen it before. His description of it and the drawing provided helped us uncover the truth of what it was, however even with the drawing it took us over a week to identify it. It was aegisleaf.”

Loch shot up in his seat, “What? That’s preposterous, every last piece of aegisleaf was destroyed centuries ago in the Dragon Wars.”

“Excuse my ignorance, but what is aegisleaf?” one of the men asked politely.

“Aegisleaf,” began Loch, “was the most powerful weapon known to mankind, the only problem was that only dragons could use it. It was a rare herb that, when ingested, bestowed incredible powers to the user. It acted as an amplifier, so the stronger the user, the stronger the effects. When a powerful dragon took aegisleaf, he would become nearly unstoppable.” There were looks of shock around the room, this herb was apparently not common knowledge.

“Humans tried for years to somehow use this herb to their advantage. They made potions, tinctures, teas, anything that could somehow allow them to unlock the power of the herb, but to no avail. The king at the time, king Roland, decided that in order for the humans to stand a chance against the dragons at all, they would need to destroy the aegisleaf for good. The king mounted an assault on one of the dragon tribes nearby while a small taskforce of the crown’s elite fighters known as the dragon corps, snuck into the dragons’ main stronghold, at the top of the tallest mountain. The dragons only left behind a single water dragon to keep watch over the aegisleaf, after all it would be absurd for humans to attack dragons where they are the strongest.”

Loch’s voice grew solemn as he continued. “The lone water dragon thought it was beneath him to stand guard on something already protected by a mountain. He went off by himself to raid a small village in defiance of the orders given to him. Left unattended, the strike force made quick work of the aegisleaf and razed it to the ground. They burned and salted the earth, making it impossible to grow ever again. This single act brought the dragons to their knees, and soon after they agreed to a truce with the king. War nor aegisleaf had ever been seen again, until now.”

Rakon sat in shocked silence with the rest of the group. He had heard of aegisleaf only because Emberheart had told him stories. From what he had been told, it turned dragons into unstoppable forces of pure chaos. Loch’s story was surprisingly accurate, even though he had never heard of the water dragon’s folly. If the aegisleaf had not been destroyed, Emberheart always said sadly, the war would have been quickly finished and the dragons would reign supreme over the land.

“I see now we should have sent word to our dear Lochland first thing, he would have saved us many days of research,” Jeremiah chuckled, breaking the silence. “But yes, that is indeed an accurate explanation of aegisleaf, and that is why it is so important we find out why and how it still exists. And not only that, but why is the High Chancellor involved?”

Again one of the men spoke up, Rakon thought his name was Joshua. “The High Chancellor is involved? How is that?”

“One of my men definitely spotted him checking out the shipment before it was unloaded into the castle. If somebody that high up is in charge of this, then we have to be very careful who we trust.”

“We don’t even know if the king is aware of this.” Teresa said suddenly. “I know we don’t love the man like the rest of the people do, but if he knew about this surely he would put a stop to it? I mean, the one thing that can bring dragons back to full power is in that castle. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t burn it the first chance he got.” There was a murmur of agreement at that statement.

“That is precisely why we need to get somebody closer to the High Chancellor to see what we can find out. We need to know exactly who is in charge of this operation and what their intentions are. Only after we know that will we know how to act.”

“What about your scribe informant, the rather short one?” Teresa asked Jynx, “wouldn’t he be able to get close enough to the Chancellor?”

Jynx shook her head sadly, “we had to pull him out, we had reason to believe that he was being followed. We reassigned him for his own safety.”

His own safety? Rakon wasn’t sure what Loch had got him into, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. This went from finally feeling slightly accepted somewhere to risking his life and the change happened much too quickly for his liking.

Jeremiah began to speak slowly, as if thinking about each word carefully before he said it. “I might have a plan.” He paused as if still thinking.

“Well don’t make me beat it out of you,” Joshua said chuckling.

“I only hesitate because this could very well be the worst plan I’ve ever made, but desperate times and all that. What if we don’t put somebody close to the Chancellor?”

There was silence in the room, and then Teresa piped up, “you’re right, that is the worst plan you’ve ever made. Anybody else got a plan?”

“No no, you misunderstand me. I mean to say, what if there is a different route to gaining the information we need? We need to know who is in charge of the aegisleaf, and what the plans pertaining to said aegisleaf are in place, correct? For that to happen, all we really need is somebody to get past the moat and overhear some choice conversations in the castle, perhaps do a little snooping.”

“Did you forget that we lost our scribe?” Jynx said with a raised eyebrow. “Honestly Jeremiah, you’re starting to lose it in your old age. We don’t have any informants in the castle, we got lucky that we have this information at all really, our guard was in the right place at the right time, that’s all. We’ll never get him in the castle, and we don’t have any people in high enough places.”

Jeremiah placed a hand calmly in the air to stop her talking. “You are correct, of course. Our guard is not in the right place to find the information we need and our other informants do not have the clearance we need. However, you forget that once a year there are a certain group of people allowed in the castle that would normally not be allowed. If we smuggle one of ours in with that group, with a little planning and a lit- alright a lot of luck, we might be able to pull this off.”

“What group are you talking about?” Teresa said, obviously losing patience. “Come on then, spit it out.”

“The dragon corps.” Jeremiah said simply. “Once a year, all the cadets attend a banquet dinner where the king can give them all a big thank you for protecting the kingdom. We get one of ours in that group and he’ll have the entire evening to find out some information. All we need is to know where the aegisleaf is being kept and we can go from there.”

“Now that’s not a half bad idea” Jynx said thoughtfully, “the only problem of course is we don’t have anybody young enough that could pass as a cadet without raising suspicion.”

“Oh but we do,” Jeremiah said smiling, turning to look right at Rakon. Everybody’s gaze followed and Rakon suddenly felt all eyes on him. He forced himself to remain calm. Should he say something? Loch told him to keep quiet, but did he see this coming?

“If Lochlan here says that his apprentice is ready to take on an assignment, then I say we get started immediately.” Jeremiah said with authority. “I said this might be a bad plan because of Rakon’s youth and lack of experience, as well as the fact that the banquet is still a few moons away. However, I think this is the best course of action to take at the moment.”

Rakon looked at Loch who seemed to be pondering the predicament. He was sure Loch would tell them no, not to be ridiculous. Afterall he couldn’t even hold his own against Loch in a fair fight, how was he going to be a spy for these people? And that’s not even counting the fact that Rakon was a dragon. Dragons do not belong in the dragon corps, people that kill dragons belong in the dragon corps. Of course there was no way to tell Loch that, but still Rakon could not imagine taking the assignment.

“My apprentice is more than ready for such a task,” Loch said calmly. “We can prepare him over the next few days, and at the beginning of next week put him in place. I’ll make sure he knows what to expect and get him the equipment he needs.”

Rakon stared at Loch in shock. An hour ago Loch told him to sit in the inn and do nothing, and now here Loch was putting him on this assignment for people he didn’t know? This was insane, absolutely insane.

“That’s fantastic, I’ll meet with you after to go over any details that you might need and make sure our young Rakon knows his task.”

The rest of the meeting was a blur for Rakon. He was listening, but didn’t hear any of it. Did Loch actually expect him to become a spy? Rakon was starting to seriously consider that it was time for him to leave. He had greatly enjoyed his time as a human, but perhaps it was time for him to move on. He had learned a lot, and wasn’t that his whole reason for doing this? To see what it was like as a human? Well he had definitely accomplished that and now he had a great story to tell Emberheart when he got back.

After the meeting ended, the group members all left one by one. A couple left through what Rakon could only assume was the back door, while the rest left through the entrance that Rakon and Loch used to come in. Jeremiah waited for everybody to leave before speaking.

“Do you think he is ready? This is a large task to ask of anybody.” Rakon felt like he was talking to Loch as if he was not there, and he didn’t like it.

Loch glanced at Rakon, as if assessing him right then and there and said, almost in a surprised tone, “yes, yes I do. He knows nothing about gathering intel, but he can hold his own with a staff and his control over earth… well let us just say it shows promise.” Rakon blinked, did Loch almost compliment him?

“Good to hear. Again, if there was any other way I would gladly take it. However I’m sure you know that time isn’t something we can count on. With aegisleaf in their possession already, who knows what they are planning?” Jeremiah began to pace back and forth. Rakon had thought during the meeting that Jeremiah was very calm and collected, but now he could tell how worried he was about the aegisleaf and what it could mean for the entire kingdom.

Loch put a hand on his old friend’s shoulder. “With something this powerful in their grasp, they aren’t going to act rashly. I fully believe that Rakon will have enough time to find his place in the dragon corps and successfully infiltrate the banquet. We will all keep our ears to the ground of course, but until we know anything there is no use worrying.”

Jeremiah nodded quickly in agreement. “You are right, of course. I can’t help but worry however. Aegisleaf, after all these years. Why now? And how? So many questions.” He looked directly at Rakon, and his stare nearly made Rakon jump out of his seat. “Hopefully you can help us answer these questions, because if not… Well, let’s just say there won’t be much left to protect anymore.”

With that, Jeremiah gave Loch a nod and walked out the door, nearly disappearing into the shadows, like a thief in the night.