The Consequences of Meeting a Dragon

"Hey, Thenio..." Bero said, staring at the dining room table with one eyebrow raised. "Didn't you say before that you could only cook basic things?"

Thenio nodded. "That's right."

"And how exactly is this 'basic?'"

Thenio also looked at the table. The dinner he'd just cooked was spread out over it: baked fish fillets, a potato casserole, a fresh green salad, and homemade dinner rolls. There was also fruit sorbet waiting in the kitchen for dessert, but Namyis had made that.

"It is basic, though?" he said, looking back at Bero in confusion. "It's nothing like the elaborate dinners that they have at my aunt's house. This is all easy stuff. Even my brother Kleyo could make it. And Lem can make things that are a lot fancier."

"So...you're comparing yourself to your brother, who loves cooking and wants to be an alchemist when he grows up...and to a professional chef employed by a noble family?"

"Right." Thenio nodded again. "I can only make simple things compared to them."

Bero turned to Ariom with a rather helpless look. "Does he think like this about everything?"

"Pretty much. Maybe it's because he hasn't been able to interact with his peers normally? He doesn't seem to have realistic expectations for himself at all."

"Yes, that probably has something to do with it. You were sort of the same way when you were his age, after all...." Bero sighed and turned back to Thenio, ignoring the glare that Ariom gave him. "Look, Thenio, these might be everyday dishes, but it's still quite impressive for a sixteen-year-old boy to be able to cook this well. You should try to be more objective about your abilities.

"With how things were for you in the past, I can understand why it might have been advantageous for you to hold yourself back and not stand out too much. But it's different now that you're here. It will be better for all of us if you learn to see yourself more clearly."

"See myself more clearly?" Thenio repeated, confused.

What was that supposed to mean? Didn't he know himself better than anyone else did?

Well...except maybe Ki'shiu. Thenio wasn't sure, but he sometimes suspected that the dream beast had been reading his thoughts or looking through his memories.

"That's right," Bero said gently. "You might think it's better to overestimate your weaknesses rather than to underestimate them. But both will cause you problems in the long run. It's best to look at yourself as honestly as you can." He paused for a moment, regarding Thenio with a thoughtful expression. "I'm curious.... You've said you draw things in order to understand them better, right? So tell me, have you ever tried to draw yourself?"

"Huh?" Thenio blinked in surprise. "No...I haven't...."

He'd seen self-portraits that other artists had done. But he'd never really thought about doing one of his own.

"I see. Well, maybe you should think about it." Bero smiled. "But for now, we should sit down and eat this wonderful dinner you've made before it gets cold."

"Uh...right." Thenio wasn't sure what else to say, so he quietly went over to his chair.

Bero and Ariom also sat down. It was just the three of them. Iggy had been anxious to play with Humerus, so Thenio fed him early so that the two of them could go out to the atrium as soon as the revenant was done with his own meal. Humerus had been in a much better mood after having something to eat and had willingly floated off after the excited little dragon.

"Ariom was just telling me about everything that's been going on," Bero said as he dished some of the casserole onto his plate. "It sounds like things have been quite interesting around here lately."

"That's putting it mildly..." Ariom said, rolling his eyes.

"How many people have you told about Ki'shiu so far?" Bero went on, ignoring him.

"Just Mideis and Namyis." Thenio took a roll and passed the basket over to Ariom. "And Amisi, of course."

"Not that we intended to tell the ice mage," Ariom added. "But with everything that happened when she first came here...well, she ended up figuring out that there was a mythic beast involved. She knows his name and magic domain and the fact that he's trying to find a way to save chaos morphs, but nothing more than that. We haven't told her that Thenio is able to use dream magic—just that he's unusually good at receiving telepathy and drawing magic formations."

Bero nodded. "That's better. I think it's all right to trust her, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. And I don't see any reason why she needs to know more at this point. On the other hand...." He turned to look at Thenio. "You'll be seeing Ki'shiu tonight, won't you? Will you ask him if it's all right to tell Kalion and Focilo everything? I think they'll both be able to help you better if they fully understand the situation, and I can absolutely guarantee their trustworthiness."

"Oh. Right. I'll ask." Thenio glanced at Ariom. "Speaking of Grandmaster Sephior, I have an appointment at the Stability Center in a couple of days, right?"

"Yes, you do." Ariom sighed and looked at his uncle. "I was wondering if you'd be willing to go with him. I'm a little overbooked this week...."

"Of course. I was planning to go have a chat with Focilo anyway. We were talking about testing Thenio's reaction to different forms of magic, right? I think it would be a good idea to involve Focilo in that. He'll have access to better equipment, and his magesight is incredibly good. Much better than mine. So he might be able to spot something that we miss."

"A job at the Stability Center to follow up a job with a battlemage? Wonderful," Ariom said gloomily. "But fine. If that's what you think is best."

It's all right to tell the doctor everything. It's very unlikely that he'll try to take advantage of you. As for the general.... Ki'shiu paused, considering. That's a bit riskier. But he seems to be capable of keeping his mouth shut about the agents and mythic beasts he's been in contact with up until now. And I know he won't betray the Denifor family. So it's probably safe to tell him.

"Why is General Obarin riskier than Grandmaster Sephior?" Thenio asked curiously. "They both have really good reputations, as far as I know."

The general is involved with some very dangerous things. More than even Bero is aware of. It's not so much that he's more likely to betray you. It's that the consequences would be much more severe if he did.

"Dangerous things? Like what?"

Politics, for one. I don't want any of the Kafron aristocrats getting the idea that they can use you to gain access to a mythic beast's power.

Thenio thought about that for a minute as he watched the waves breaking over the rocks down below them. Ki'shiu had been taking him to different places every night, and they would spend a little while enjoying the scenery and talking before they started Thenio's magic lesson. Tonight they were on a cliffside overlooking the ocean.

"They couldn't actually access much through me, though, could they? I mean, I've gotten pretty good at recreating Iggy's toys in my dreams, but how useful is that? I still can't do much with dream magic in the real world."

People like that consider any kind of mental magic to be valuable, no matter how weak your skills are right now. Information is power, and you have a way of getting information that most people can't. That's why most mental mages work for powerful organizations like the military or the Wizard Association. They need strong friends to protect them from being abducted or exploited.

"Is that why Mideis works for the Royal Guard?"

Most likely. He probably would have preferred more of an academic career researching Pre-War enchanting but had to compromise a little for his own safety. The Royal Guard isn't safe for all its members, of course, but I'm sure they take good care of their mental mages. As I said, they're valuable.

"Will I have to go work for someplace like that, too, if my magic ever gets stable enough?"

Not if you don't want to. You already have powerful friends who will protect you.

"You just said you were worried about the aristocrats finding out about me, though," Thenio pointed out.

Ki'shiu heaved a sigh, making the cliffside tremble and the waves grow a bit rougher. Then he was silent for a long moment.

What I'm really worried about, he said finally, is that General Obarin knows our weakness.

"Whose weakness? The mythic beasts'?"

Yes. I'll be able to protect you in most situations. But if he uses that.... The dream beast shook his head and didn't finish.

"Can you...tell me what it is?" Thenio asked tentatively, knowing he was likely to get an evasive reply.

Ki'shiu never got angry with him for asking questions, but he often refused to give straight answers.

The dream beast looked at him for a moment, apparently thinking about how to respond.

Demons. Most mythic beasts are weak against demon magic. And the head of Kafron's Magic Corps can access unpurified demon crystals much more easily than the average human. That's why he's potentially dangerous.

Thenio raised his eyebrows. "Wait, really? You're weak against demon poison?"

Yes. Ki'shiu put his ears back and pawed at the ground a little. Otherwise, we would have dealt with the rifts a long time ago....

"Oh." Thenio blinked, processing that information. "Is that why Eteon hates the Order of the Ravener so much? Because they're trying to find a way to use demon magic?"

That's part of it. They've caused a lot of trouble over the years, and their connection to demons is the reason we can't just wipe out the lot of them.

"He said that the miasma makes it hard to use dream magic because it corrupts things and makes information difficult to read."

Yes. Ki'shiu stopped pawing, and his head and ears drooped. That's why I'm especially vulnerable to demon magic, even for a mythic beast. I have to stay as far away from it as I can.

Thenio's eyes widened a little. "So you can't even fight demons like battlemages do? What about Eteon?"

He's the same. Miasma is very dangerous for both of us.

"Then what about me? Am I more at risk because of being able to use dream magic, too?"

Ki'shiu shook his head. In general, no. Once your dream magic is under control, the risk to you shouldn't be any greater than it is to a normal human. Though with your current magic power level, you shouldn't be going anywhere near demons anyway.

"How do you know? Did you test it with other chaos morphs?"

Yes. It should be in the information that Ariom received from the Association.

"Oh, that. I haven't read it all yet." Thenio looked away, out over the endless blue water. "Bero gave me a copy, but...I haven't really felt up to going through it...."

That's fine. It's better for you to focus on the things you can do in the present. The rest of us are here to guide you, so there's no need to expose yourself to those unpleasant things before you're ready.

"Bero said something like that, too." Thenio was quiet for a minute. "Hey...what would happen if I drew myself?"

Drew yourself?

"Right. Using dream magic. You know how I draw things when I want to understand them better? What would happen if I drew a picture of myself that way?"

Why do you ask?

"It's something Bero suggested. He was telling me that I need to learn to see myself more clearly. He seems to think that I'm underestimating my abilities, because I said I can only do basic cooking. That's true, though. I can't make the same kind of fancy meals that the chef at Aunt Suliya's house does. So I don't really understand what he meant...."

Ah. I see. Ki'shiu nodded. He's right. You don't see yourself clearly at all.

"Huh? You too?" Thenio stared at him, nonplussed. "But it's true that I can't cook fancy things."

Your facts are right. But your perspective is wrong. You're always comparing yourself to other people. It's a terrible habit that your parents taught you. Isn't your mother always comparing herself to her sister?

"Well...yes? But how are you supposed to evaluate yourself properly if you don't look at other people to know what's possible?"

Is it possible, though? Your aunt married into a noble family. Your mother didn't. Your aunt is older and happened to be born with a little more magical talent. Their circumstances are different, so it's not possible for their lives to look the same. Then what does it accomplish to make comparisons, other than making your mother unhappy?

Thenio frowned. "I guess I can understand that. But skills are different, aren't they? I mean, it's possible for me to learn to cook as well as Aunt Suliya's chef."

Ki'shiu shook his head. In the future, perhaps. But right now, it's the same as your mother and her sister. The circumstances are different.

You're sixteen years old. You started learning to cook less than a decade ago, you mostly taught yourself from books, and you've only made meals for your family until recently.

The chef currently employed by your aunt and uncle is fifty-three. He's been cooking for more than forty years. He went to a culinary training school when he was younger, followed by an apprenticeship at a high-quality restaurant.

Thenio didn't ask how he knew all those things. It wasn't the first time that the dream beast had pulled unexpected information out of the air like that. He was presumably using dream magic to retrieve the knowledge he wanted about Aunt Suliya's chef.

With your current experience and training, it's obviously not possible for you to cook as well as that chef, Ki'shiu went on. It's not fair to compare yourself to him. And more than that, it's not useful.

As you say, it's good to learn from other people. But that's not what comparison does. When you compare yourself to someone, you're defining yourself by the distance between you. By the things they have that you don't. That's why you're not seeing clearly. It's only natural that you'll end up with a distorted view of yourself if you're always looking at the person you're not instead of the person you are.

"What am I, then?" Thenio asked, looking up into the dream beast's face. "What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?"

There was a moment of silence as Ki'shiu looked down at him with a gentle expression.

I'm afraid I can't tell you that, he said finally. It's something you'll have to work out on your own. But I can at least tell you this much....

He bent down and nuzzled Thenio's hair.

You're a much more amazing person than you think you are....

"Hi, Thenio!" Namyis said cheerfully, waving at him as she got out of her golem carriage. "It looks like Ariom is letting you answer the door again."

"Yeah, he is. The tests on my new insulation bands have been going well. Though I'm supposed to get away from you if I start feeling cold."

"I see. Well, I won't take it personally if you suddenly run off, then," she said with a wink as she came up the front steps. "I don't suppose Ariom's thinking about making some of those insulation devices for magic beasts, too...?"

"Uh...not yet," Thenio said evasively. "He's really busy with this job, so he doesn't have much time to work on side projects right now. And it would take a while to adjust the enchantment matrix to work on a magic beast, so...." He trailed off and looked at her imploringly. "Don't nag him about it, okay? He's been really grumpy lately."

Namyis laughed. "All right. I get it. I'll try not to make things too hard for you."

"I'd appreciate that...."

The two of them walked across the entryway and down the hall toward the stairs.

"Hey, can I ask you a weird question?" Thenio said hesitantly.

"Sure thing," Namyis said with a smile. "Oh, but I'm not allowed to tell you about demons. Ariom said so."

"I know. He told me not to ask you anything like that."

Thenio still hadn't told Ariom everything that he'd learned from Ki'shiu the night before. The dream beast hadn't specifically told him not to tell anyone that mythic beasts were weak against demon poison, but it felt too important to just pass on carelessly. While he was thinking about it, he'd asked Ariom and Bero a casual question about demons during breakfast that morning, only to be told that the topic was off-limits, as per Ki'shiu's instructions.

Well, it made sense, considering what had happened with Namyis' magic. If he could recreate different magic attributes, and if dream magic was especially weak against demon poison....

Yes. Better to avoid demons entirely for the time being.

"It's just...." Thenio stopped walking and fidgeted a little as he tried to figure out how to phrase his question correctly. "Well, you're pretty good with people, right? You seem to be able to keep teasing Ariom without ever making him lose his temper."

"Oh, that." Namyis gave a small laugh. "That's how we get to know our teammates in the Magic Corps. You play around with each other like that to learn where everyone's boundaries are."

"Boundaries?"

"Right. How much a person can tolerate different kinds of stress. What topics you have to avoid in conversation. That kind of thing. It's a lot better to learn all that in the training center than to learn it when you're standing in front of a demon rift."

"Oh." Thenio had thought she just liked messing with Ariom. He never would have guessed that there was an actual purpose behind it. "Then...how do you know what kind of person someone really is?"

Namyis tilted her head. "What, is there a girl you have a crush on and want to get to know?

"What? No!" Thenio felt his face grow warm. "It's not like that!"

"Hmm?" A sly smile spread across her face. "You're protesting a little too much there.... Very suspicious."

"That's not it! Really! It's that...someone told me yesterday that I need to learn to see myself more clearly. To be more objective about my abilities and things...you know?"

"Oh. Like that." Namyis' teasing expression vanished, and she nodded in understanding. "Magic Corps trainees have trouble with that sometimes. Well...probably a lot of kids your age do, whether they're magic users or not. So, you're wondering how to understand yourself better?"

"Right." Thenio also nodded, relieved she'd finally gotten the right idea.

"Hmm." Namyis put a finger on her cheek. "Well, different methods work best for different people. For combat wizards, we do a lot of sparring against each other. That helps us to understand our abilities better and to be prepared to counter various kinds of attacks. But I guess you can't really do that kind of thing, can you...?"

Thenio shook his head. "No, I can't be exposed to that much magic. And the person who told me I need to understand myself better also said that I need to not compare myself to other people so much."

"Right. You do seem to be pretty hard on yourself that way. Even I've noticed that. Well, maybe something like a skill inventory would help, then. We do those with all our new recruits. Basically, we put them through a bunch of tests and take notes on what they do well and what they need to improve on. Then we use that to make up a training program that builds on their strengths."

"On their strengths? Don't you want to focus on fixing the problems first?"

Namyis shook her head. "No, it's usually better to focus on the things they're good at to start with, then branch out from there. A lot of new trainees get really intimidated when they start working with mid- and high-rankers for the first time. Giving them a solid foundation of skills they know they're good at helps a lot in building confidence."

That was the opposite of how Thenio had always done things....

"It helps to have an expert overseeing the process, to give you a more objective viewpoint. But you can at least start by yourself to see if it helps at all. Just do your best to be honest with your evaluations. And don't take things too seriously. Try to have fun with it."

"Have...fun?"

"Right!" Namyis beamed at him. "That's how you survive a horrific training regimen. You turn it into a game!" She laughed at the incredulous look on Thenio's face. "Well, of course it's better not to have a horrific training regimen in the first place. But you know, if you don't have a choice...."

"Uh...right. Well...I guess...I'll try it out and see what happens."

She smiled at him again. "Good! Try it out and let me know how it goes. I hereby appoint you as my newest unofficial trainee!"

"Please don't. Ariom's going to throw me out of the house...."

Namyis laughed again and continued walking. She'd been there enough times to know where to go by now, so Thenio let her lead the way.

When they reached the top of the stairs and turned the corner, Namyis suddenly stopped. Thenio looked past her to see what was wrong and was exasperated to see a dragon skeleton floating in the middle of the hallway in front of them, his eyes glowing with sinister green flames.

"Ah, it's okay," he told Namyis hastily. "That's just—"

"Humerus!" Namyis said happily, her own eyes lighting up. "I've been wanting to see you! It's been such a long time!"

"You...what...?" Clearly unsettled by her reaction, Humerus started drifting slowly backwards, away from Namyis.

"Aww...don't go." She put on her pathetic face and took a step forward. "Come here and let me cuddle you for a few minutes, okay?"

Humerus' eyes flared in alarm, and he started moving faster. "What do you want to cuddle a bunch of bones for, you crazy ice mage? I'm a revenant, okay? A scary, ferocious revenant!"

"But you're so cute!" Namyis said, giving him a brilliant smile. "Hey, come here...."

"Wah? No! Get away from me!"

Humerus turned and sped off down the hallway, with Namyis chasing him and Thenio still standing frozen at the top of the stairs, staring blankly after them both.