The Consequences of Meeting a Dragon

The sound of the explosion was deafening, and the force rocked the entire room, in spite of the barriers protecting it.

Thenio's desk jolted and slid to the side. His chair tipped, and he would have fallen over if Grandmaster Sephior hadn't quickly put an arm around him to hold him up.

Amisi yowled and dug her claws into the cushion of her bench to stop herself from falling off, while Iggy tumbled off the table with a squawk, followed by a flutter of papers.

When the shaking stopped, they could hear shouts and movement coming from the observation area.

"Is anyone hurt?" Grandmaster Sephior asked, looking around the room.

His expression was serious but calm, and he was still holding his arm protectively around Thenio's shoulders. It felt much stronger than his frail appearance would suggest. Maybe he was using some kind of body strengthening magic.

"I'm okay...I think," Amisi said uncertainly. Her ears were flattened, and her fur was standing on end, but she looked all right otherwise.

"I'm fine. But I need to go check on Humerus." Bero had gotten to his feet, and he had a concerned frown on his face. He moved around the table to where Iggy had fallen. "Iggy? Are you all right?"

There was a rustling sound as the little dragon crawled out from under the papers that had fallen on top of him. Once he was free, he stood and looked around anxiously, like he was trying to find something.

Was he looking for Obby? The plush chicken had also fallen on the floor and rolled off somewhere. Thenio couldn't see it from where he was sitting.

Iggy didn't seem to be thinking about chickens, though. "Where's Ariom?" he asked in a panicky voice, still looking all around him. "I can't feel where Ariom is. Why can't I feel where he is?!"

"Iggy, calm down." Amisi jumped off her bench and went over to him. "They put extra barriers up just before the explosion went off. I'm sure Ariom is fine. You just can't feel him because he's low on magic power and is inside a lot of barrier layers. I can't feel Mideis right now, either."

But Iggy wasn't listening. He ran to the door and leapt at the handle, trying to grab onto it. His paws slid off the smooth metal, and he fell to the floor.

Undaunted, he jumped at the door again, beating his wings and scrabbling wildly at the wood around the door handle with his claws. "I need to go! I need to go find Ariom!"

"Iggy, stop," Bero said, walking over to the door. "I'll go take care of Ariom. You need to stay here."

"No! I have to find him!"

Iggy landed back on the floor and immediately leapt up again to continue attacking the door. He managed to hold onto the handle this time, but his tiny body was too light to turn it. With a look of desperation, he bit at the metal handle, hitting the wood on either side with his wings.

"Igneous!" Bero said sternly.

The little dragon immediately froze in place. When he did, he slipped off the door handle again and fell in a heap on the floor. Instead of jumping back up, he turned his head and looked up at Bero with a piteous whine.

"I'll take care of Ariom," Bero repeated, his voice firm. "You need to stay here. You promised Ariom that you'd help look after Thenio, remember?"

"Mmm...." Iggy made a small noise that was half acknowledgement and half protest, his ears hanging low.

Bero leaned down and picked him up, then carried him back over to the desk and handed him to Thenio.

"I'll go take care of things," he said once again. "Focilo, can I leave these three to you?"

"Of course. Go do whatever you need to do."

Bero gave a nod of thanks. He patted Iggy's head and then turned and left the room.

Iggy silently watched him go. After the door closed again, he let out a miserable whimper and burrowed into Thenio's arms, pressing his face into the fabric of his shirt and gripping it tightly with his claws. His tiny body was shivering.

"It's okay," Thenio told him soothingly, stroking his back. "Ariom will be fine. Everything's going to be okay."

In spite of his reassurances to Iggy, Thenio couldn't help feeling a little worried himself. He knew Ariom was a highly skilled wizard and that he and the Royal Guard had put a lot of safety precautions in place.

But that explosion had sounded pretty bad....

And if something happened to Ariom, what was going to happen to him...?

Amisi came over and jumped up onto Thenio's lap. He stopped petting Iggy for a minute to give her head and ears a light scratch. She could probably sense that he was anxious. And she was probably a little anxious herself, although Mideis should have been the safest out of everyone in the other room.

Grandmaster Sephior patted Thenio's shoulder before finally moving his arm away. "Don't worry too much, you three. Humerus was there to protect them. That sassy little skeleton is much more competent than he usually lets on."

The doctor began tidying up Thenio's desk. The stack of clean paper had slid across it, and the box of extra pencils had tipped over and spilled its contents.

Thenio's hand had hit against the desk when the explosion went off, and the pencil he'd been holding had made a long, thin gouge in the desk's surface before snapping in half.

Grandmaster Sephior inspected the damage for a moment and then touched the wood lightly with his finger. The area around the scratch glowed briefly. When the light faded, the surface was smooth again.

He fixed the broken pencil in the same way, fitting the jagged ends together and then making the wood melt back into a solid piece. He put the pencil in the box with the others and began gathering up the scattered papers.

"How did you do that?" Thenio asked, looking curiously at the newly repaired pencil. "You're a life mage, aren't you?"

"I am. But I've done some additional attribute training, so I can use a bit of wood magic."

It wasn't like a person was completely limited by their magic affinity. It simply determined which type of magic came most naturally to them. With enough training, most wizards were able to learn to use one or two other attributes, albeit with much less proficiency than the ones they originally had an affinity for.

In this case, it meant that Grandmaster Sephior had trained to be able to use earth and crystal magic. It wasn't anything that surprising for a double grandmaster, but it was still impressive.

When the desk was cleared, the doctor took a small earthenware jar out of his space pocket, set it down, and removed the lid.

A familiar, comforting scent began wafting out.

"That smell...." Thenio stared at the jar. "Were you using that when I was asleep?"

It was the same thing he'd smelled when he was dreaming about that tree earlier.

"Oh, you noticed? Yes, it's a healing potpourri made by the Shiu'tanas in Ket'qe. It has a calming effect, and all three of you look like you could use a little of that right now.... They don't normally allow anyone to use it outside of the forest, since the ingredients are quite special. So it's a bit of a secret that I have some." Grandmaster Sephior gave them a small wink. "I can trust you not to tell on me, can't I? Well...telling Ariom and Mideis is all right. And Bero already knows about it."

"Oh...sure. I won't tell anyone else," Thenio agreed, nodding.

Amisi also nodded.

Iggy still had his face buried in Thenio's shirt and didn't seem to be paying much attention to what they were saying. But as the gentle scent drifted around them, Thenio felt the little dragon's body stop trembling.

"Good." Grandmaster Sephior smiled, looking pleased by their response. "I know you're all concerned about what's going on outside, but we need to stay in here until it's safe for Thenio to leave the barrier. Do your best to be patient for now."

Namyis hadn't forgotten what Humerus had told her.

When Ariom suddenly stiffened up during the analysis, she immediately activated her body strengthening magic and got ready to move. And when the green flames flared up around the flesh golem, she didn't hesitate to drop her stasis magic and leap over the table to get to Ariom.

She reached his side just as he stumbled and managed to catch him before he fell. She unceremoniously scooped him up and carried him as she dashed toward the protective wall, throwing up a few sheets of ice behind her to help block the force of the explosion in case they weren't fast enough.

Mideis was already on his feet with his hand on the control panel for the extra barrier that had been installed into the low wall. He activated it as soon as they were on the other side. Namyis also spun around, still holding Ariom, to put out as much ice as she could manage before the explosion hit them.

It was enough...but barely.

Humerus managed to redirect the main blast away from them, but there was still enough force to shatter all the ice walls Namyis had put up. Fortunately, they absorbed enough of the impact that the magical barrier was able to block the rest and hold steady.

The room shook heavily as the large explosion tore through it, and the noise was painfully loud. But the combat suits were enough to prevent them from being injured by any falling debris, and the helmets had enchantments to protect their ears.

As the shockwave passed and the room stilled again, Namyis let out a small sigh of relief and lowered Ariom to the ground.

But he was far from relaxed.

"Put up another ice wall! Hurry!" he said urgently, moving away from her and toward the cushion where Humerus' bones were lying, abandoned and motionless.

Namyis didn't question him and immediately started reforming her shattered wall. As she did, she kept one eye on what Ariom was doing and the other on the rest of the room. The dust and magic flames generated by the explosion were obscuring her view at the moment, but they were slowly clearing away.

Ariom pulled a leather bag out of his space pocket. It had a simple design, but it was heavily tooled with what looked like an enchantment inscription. He opened the top flap on the bag and started quickly transferring Humerus' bones into it.

Namyis watched with interest. Ariom had said that Humerus would help take care of the explosion and he and Bero would take care of things after that. But he hadn't specified exactly what that meant, so she didn't really know what he was trying to do.

It seemed to be important, though, judging from Ariom's serious expression. He hadn't even taken the time to be embarrassed about her carrying him to safety.

Ariom finally collected the last of the dragon bones and closed the bag's flap again. Then he fastened the latch that held it down.

As if in response, a hoarse, piercing shriek came from where the examination table had been. A wave of magic power followed it, sweeping through the room and crashing against Namyis' ice barrier.

It wasn't as strong as the previous explosion, and her newly created ice wall, which she'd been able to form a little more slowly and carefully than the earlier ones, was able to withstand it. But it was strong enough that Namyis frowned and started pushing out her magic a little faster to reinforce the barrier as much as possible.

The magic wave had cleared out the rest of the dust hanging in the air, allowing her to see that one wall of the room had been almost completely destroyed. It was an outside wall, fortunately, with an open area on the other side. Humerus had probably directed the blast that way on purpose.

Namyis couldn't help feeling a slight chill when she saw it. If they'd been hit straight on by that much magic power....

She'd probably survive it. But it was hard to say about Ariom and Mideis. Or Thenio, since there likely would have been enough force to reach all the way through to the next room.

She could also see what was left of the examination table...which wasn't much. The golem was lying in the rubble, blackened and twisted. There were still flames burning on it. But rather than the rich leaf green color that Humerus' fire usually was, this was a sickly shade of greenish yellow, with a few streaks of dark red.

As she watched the flames flickering, Namyis' eyes suddenly widened.

The golem was moving.

It pushed itself up off the ground with one hand. Then it started to get to its feet, but the hand it was bracing itself with slipped, and it fell. It lay still on the floor for a moment before it moved the hand back underneath it and slowly pushed itself up again.

This time, it managed to stagger awkwardly to its feet. As it turned to face them, Namyis saw why it was only using one hand to get up.

The other arm, shoulder, and a large chunk of the torso had been blown off by the explosion. Green-tinged fire licked the edges of the gaping hole. The golem's eyes seemed to have been burned away, and small flames were dancing inside the empty sockets.

The golem stared at them blankly, standing in a slumped, lopsided pose, like a broken marionette. Then it opened its mouth and let out another long, unearthly scream.

Namyis braced herself as another wave of magic power hit her barrier. Before she had a chance to recover, the golem itself suddenly dashed toward them at a terrifying speed, its three remaining limbs flailing unnaturally.

There was a loud thud as it hit the ice wall. It screamed again and started clawing at the wall with fingers covered in dark red fire. Namyis was startled to see that they actually left deep gouges in the surface of her ice. She hurriedly channeled her magic to that area, doing her best to reform the ice as quickly as it was being destroyed.

"My bones!" the golem howled, its voice rough and distorted. "Give me my bones!"

Namyis stared at it. "...Humerus? Is that really Humerus?"

"He's rampaging," Ariom said grimly. "He absorbed too much magic power from the explosion." He handed the leather bag to Mideis. "Hold that. We have to keep it away from him until he calms down. He can't use his full strength if he's separated from his vessel."

"That isn't his full strength?!" Mideis was watching the golem with a horrified expression. He took the bag of bones from Ariom with obvious reluctance.

"No. Far from it. But stay calm. We just have to hold him off for a few minutes until my uncle gets here."

That was easier said than done. Namyis probably would have been fine if she hadn't been maintaining a high level stasis crystal for more than twenty hours straight that day. She still had a decent amount of magic power left, but the mental fatigue was enough to make her magic use a bit sluggish, and she was having a hard time fending off Humerus' frenzied attacks.

"Those are my bones! They're mine! Give them back to me!"

"Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!" Ariom snapped back at him, joining Namyis at the barrier. "You're going to burn them up if we give them back to you now. Just look what you're doing to that golem."

Looking more closely, Namyis could see that the golem was indeed slowly burning away. Bits of ash and charred flesh were being knocked off every time Humerus hit the ice.

As she watched, his wild flailing made the remaining arm break off at the shoulder. But it only dropped halfway to the floor before it floated up and started attacking another spot on the barrier. The rest of the golem lurched forward and began gnawing at the ice with its blackened teeth.

"Stop that, you greedy revenant," Ariom scolded. "You've already eaten more than enough." He put his hands up and sent out a stream of dark grey magic that spread out and covered Namyis' ice with an intricate pattern.

As the void magic coated it, the golem's fingers and teeth stopped digging into the barrier and slipped off, as though the ice had a layer of water over it.

The golem stopped moving. The arm hung in midair, and the body froze in an awkward, bent position. The head twisted weirdly, and the burning eyes seemed to focus on the dark grey magic lines.

Namyis could have sworn that the fire in them turned a shade greener.

"A...ri...om?"

The voice was different this time. It was much closer to Humerus' normal voice, although it sounded confused and hesitant. The golem's mouth didn't move, and Namyis realized that the rough, distorted voice from before had been Humerus making sound physically, by forcing air through the golem's throat, rather than speaking with magic like he usually did.

"That's...Ariom's magic." Humerus' voice came again, sounding a little stronger. "Ariom's in there...."

He was silent for a moment.

Then the golem's mouth opened again.

"My bones!" it roared. "I want my bones!"

"No! Get back!" Humerus' voice shouted.

The golem's body and arm suddenly jerked straight backwards, like they'd been pulled with a rope. They fell in a twisted heap on the floor.

"Ariom's my family. I won't hurt him!"

"He's my...my...my..." the golem said in a raspy, halting voice. "...my...mine...." The flames in its eyes suddenly flared red. "Mine! He's mine!"

It rose up again and flew straight back toward the barrier, crashing hard against the ice. One of its legs came off at the knee, but Humerus didn't seem to notice or care. He began repeatedly smashing the pieces of the golem against the ice wall, along with turbulent waves of magic power.

"Mine! Mine! It's mine! Give it to me! It's mine!" he screeched.

There were large cracks starting to spread through the ice where he was hitting it....

"Humerus!" another voice suddenly shouted from the other side of the room. "Over here!"

The golem froze again. Its head was only attached by a thin rope of charred muscle now, allowing it to twist all the way around to look in the direction the voice had come from.

Bero was standing in front of the gaping hole where the explosion had blown through the wall. He was holding something blue in his hand.

"You're looking for this, aren't you?"

He held up the object. It seemed to be a realistic-looking dragon doll, a little larger than Iggy, with bright blue scales.

When Humerus saw it, red flames burst out all over the golem, which by this time was little more than a broken, burned skeleton.

"You!" he howled, rushing toward Bero.

Bero threw the doll out in front of him, and Humerus pounced on it, burning, biting, and tearing at it mercilessly.

"You're dead! You're dead! Those are my bones now! They're mine! Bero is mine! You can't have him! You can't have him!"

While Humerus was caught up in his attempts to murder the dragon doll, Bero held up his hands and began sending out strands of shining golden magic, weaving them together to form an intricate cage around the rampaging revenant.

"Keep that barrier up!" he shouted over Humerus' angry shrieks, glancing toward Ariom and Namyis. "I'll tell you when it's safe to come out."

Then he turned his attention back to the magical cage he was creating, his brow furrowed in concentration. He continued weaving new strands of magic into it, and it gradually became thicker and denser.

Humerus was so focused on the doll that he didn't notice what Bero was doing at all....

Not at first.

But then his frenzied movements finally made the golem's skull break off from what was left of the body. The skull flew toward the golden barrier, bounced off it, and then hovered in midair and swiveled in all directions, presumably looking at the cage it was now enclosed in.

The other crumbling pieces of the golem's body paused their assault on the dragon doll, which had now been burned black by Humerus' flames.

There was a moment of silence.

Then Humerus let out a furious howl and started attacking the barrier, throwing all the golem parts he still had control over against it over and over.

Bero gritted his teeth and his face paled a little as he continued reinforcing the barrier. But the golden cage held.

Ariom stopped putting out his own magic and slumped against the closest table. He looked exhausted.

"It's...probably all right now," he said, panting a little. "We shouldn't remove our barriers yet...but I'm going to stop increasing my reinforcement. I'm almost out of magic." He looked at Namyis. "You still have some moondust, don't you?"

"Yes. But I'm not giving you any. You've already gone through two bottles today. You're going to get recovery sickness."

"Better that than get a faceful of revenant fire."

"But best not to get either one." Namyis nodded toward Bero's golden cage. "That's a parasitic barrier, isn't it? If Humerus is losing strength, I should be able to hold him off, even if he does break out. And the reinforcement you already put on my ice is still there. You've done enough."

Ariom glared at her for a moment before looking away and letting out a sigh. "Fine."

He must really be tired if he was admitting defeat that easily.... But no wonder. Today's analysis had lasted almost twice as long as any of their practices had, and Ariom's part of it had been the hardest. It would be strange if he weren't tired by now.

Mideis seemed to be having similar thoughts. He pushed his chair toward Ariom. "Here. You look like you need this more than I do."

"...thanks." Ariom was clearly annoyed by his own fatigue, but he accepted the chair and sank into it without further comment.

Mideis looked back at Humerus, who was still doing his best to attack Bero's barrier, even though the golem he'd been possessing was rapidly falling apart. "What was that doll your uncle threw out?"

"It's an imitation of the dragon that Humerus' bones came from," Ariom replied, also watching the struggling revenant. "His name was Kamu. He was an Azure Flare from the dragon hatchery our relatives run. One of Iggy's distant cousins."

"But why was he attacking it like that? I get that he wants his vessel back, but he seems to really hate that dragon...."

"Revenants are always terrified of two things: First, that they won't have enough food. And second, that the original owner of their body is somehow going to come back and take it away from them. And probably take everything else they have in the process—their home, their friends, their contract partner.... I think Humerus is even afraid that Kamu will steal his puppet collection someday."

Mideis blinked, looking confused. "But...he's dead, right? There's no way he's going to come back."

"I know that. And Humerus knows that. He knows it doesn't make sense. But revenants are just insecure like that. They can't help it." Ariom sighed. "And it's even worse in Humerus' case because he knows that Uncle Bero was considering forming a familiar contract with Kamu before he died. He's afraid that Uncle Bero secretly wishes Kamu were his familiar instead. That's why Humerus never turns himself blue. And he tends to pick fights whenever he meets any other Azure Flares...we've had some issues in the family because of that...."

"Ah...I'd wondered a little why I never saw him wearing blue scales." Namyis nodded in understanding. "So, does Bero wish Kamu were his familiar? Have you asked him?"

"I have. And no, he doesn't. He's always liked skeletons. He was an orthopedic doctor before he went into magic circuit alteration. So he actually wanted a revenant from the time he was in magic school. That's why he studied necromancy and magic zoology along with healing magic—so he could get a spectral beast license. But Kamu was born with some severe health problems, including a couple of malformed legs, and Uncle Bero ended up helping with parts of his treatment. He got pretty attached to him during that time. He still feels sorry that he couldn't do more to help him. But he's not sorry he ended up with Humerus as his familiar instead. He loves that silly revenant."

While they'd been talking, Humerus had finally given up on the golem, which had been burned and broken down into unrecognizable fragments. His flames left it, allowing the pieces to fall to the ground, and went into the dragon doll instead. Its blue skin was already scorched and mostly black from the earlier attack. And it continued to burn and flake away after Humerus possessed the doll, allowing the skeleton underneath to show through.

"Are those real bones?" Namyis asked, looking at them curiously.

"They're bones, but they're artificially created," Ariom explained. "Like the flesh golem's. Having a copy of Kamu's bones inside the doll helps Humerus recognize it as him, so it works better as bait when he's out of his mind like this."

"So your uncle just keeps fake dragon corpses on hand, for when Humerus goes crazy?" Mideis asked incredulously. "Is that normal for people who have revenant familiars?"

Ariom shrugged. "Pretty normal. Using a replica doll as bait is a standard containment strategy. I have another one in my space pocket. I was going to use it to distract Humerus if he managed to get through our barriers. They don't work as well on all revenants as they do on him. But like I said, most of them feel some kind of fear and resentment toward the former owner of their vessels. "

"Revenants are so weird...."

"Yeah. They are," Ariom agreed. Then he pointed toward the large hole in the wall of the analysis room. "But one of them just willingly blocked a huge magic explosion and sent himself into a rampage in order to protect us from that. You can't complain too much about someone who just saved your life, you know. Even if he is weird."