The Consequences of Meeting a Dragon

"Tag! I got you, tree-cat! Now you're it!"

Thenio raised his head in time to see a triumphant Iggy jump off Brel's shoulders, scurry up one of the climbing tree's branches, and disappear into a tunnel. Brel waited briefly to give the little dragon a head start before chasing after him, jumping easily from branch to branch. Thenio watched him for a moment before looking back down and adding another quick drawing to the page of his sketchbook, which was already mostly full of rough sketches of Iggy and Brel in various poses.

He'd never really tried drawing Forest People before. But it was quite interesting. Brel looked similar to a human child when he was on the ground, but once he was in a tree, he suddenly turned lithe and graceful, scampering up and down like a squirrel. He seemed to have an excellent sense of balance, aided by his long tail, which he could move around to help shift his weight.

His feet turned out to be rather different from human ones, too. Just before he'd started climbing, he'd taken off the soft leather shoes he was wearing, revealing long toes that could grip the bark of the tree almost like hands.

Iggy insisted that Brel was a 'tree-cat' and wasn't at all like a monkey, but...he really was a lot like a monkey....

Thenio looked over at the other end of the bench he was sitting on, where a wooden octopus was happily scribbling away on a large pad of paper, using several different colored crayons at once. Humerus had claimed that he didn't actually like coloring and was only doing it because it was a good way to test out his new puppet. But he'd been at it for more than an hour now.

It seemed like quite a long test....

The revenant was surprisingly good at being an octopus. As Thenio watched, one of the wooden tentacles dropped a green crayon back into its tin and smoothly curled around a yellow one to pick it up, at the same time that three other tentacles were still drawing on the paper. It was impressive coordination.

But the motion also reminded Thenio of...something. He couldn't quite think what it was. He'd never seen a live octopus before—just pictures in books. But something about those curling tentacles was oddly familiar....

Maybe it was something he'd dreamed about. He'd had a lot of strange dreams over the past couple of days. Probably because he'd been sleeping in so many unfamiliar places: short naps at the Royal Guard headquarters, several hours at the Order base, and then sleeping off and on for more than a day at the Stability Center. He only half remembered most of those dreams, but it was enough to leave him feeling a little unsettled and disoriented, sort of like he'd been away on a long trip somewhere. He was glad to be back at Ariom's house, but it felt a little strange at the same time.

He hoped that being able to sleep in his own bed tonight would help.

Thenio filled up the last corner of his sketchbook page with a drawing of Humerus lifting the yellow crayon out of the box. Maybe he'd be able to figure out what it reminded him of later, when his head wasn't so fuzzy due to magic suppression.

He turned to a clean page and frowned at it for a moment before glancing over at the patio, where Ariom, Eteon, Bero, and Grandmaster Sephior were all seated around a table, going over copies of the new magic circuit scans that Eteon had given them. He'd disappeared while the rest of them came over to Ariom's house from the Stability Center in Ariom's and Grandmaster Sephior's golem carriages, and when they arrived, he'd been there waiting for them in front of the gate, carrying the stack of papers.

Thenio wasn't sure if he'd chosen to wait out there because it was difficult to get through all the security enchantments Ariom had on his property or simply because he thought it was rude to go inside without permission.

Probably the latter.

Humerus' real body was sitting on the table near Bero. Brel had been sitting with them at first, too. But Iggy, who had been cooped up in Thenio's medical suite for most of the day, had reached his limit on sitting still. And since Thenio didn't really have enough energy to play right now, the Forest Man had volunteered to keep the little dragon entertained for a while.

They'd told Thenio that he could listen to their conversation if he wanted to. But he didn't know that much about magic circuits, and he didn't feel like he had enough energy or mental clarity right now to try to keep up with a technical discussion on a topic he barely understood.

Besides, he felt like he already had more than enough new information to process for one day. The idea that he was actually a chimera still seemed so unreal.

The magic suppression didn't help with that, of course. Neither did whatever magic Eteon had used to help calm him down when his magic had started going out of control. His memory of the conversation that morning was blurry and distant, as though the whole thing had just been a dream.

Clouded memories were better than exploding, of course, so he couldn't really complain. But not being able to focus properly on the subject was frustrating. And it made it difficult to know how to feel about learning that he was a chimera...especially with how Bero had reacted to the news. He'd apologized later and told Thenio that he still intended to help as much as he could. But things had been a bit awkward between them since then.

Thenio didn't really blame him for what he'd said. He knew Bero's time at the Stability Center had been hard on him. And after seeing Ariom's dream, he could understand why Bero wanted to protect his nephew from the pain of losing another person.

But what exactly was Thenio supposed to do about all that at this point? It wasn't like he was trying to die....

Fortunately, Ariom hadn't shown any signs of wanting to give up or throw Thenio back to the military, despite his uncle's pessimism and his annoyance at Eteon for not telling them the truth sooner.

But...how would he feel in a week or two, after he'd finished studying those circuit scans and read up on chimeras...?

Thenio sighed and turned back to his sketchbook. Drawing wasn't helping him relax as much as it usually did. Maybe he should try a different subject.

He pondered for a moment before cautiously using a little dream magic, trying to summon an image of the thing he wanted to draw into his mind. After a minute, he started sketching.

A lean body partially obscured by thick fur. Feathered wings. Horns with several small prongs, similar to Ki'shiu's. A long, thin tail with a tuft of hair on the end. Gentle, intelligent eyes.

About fifteen minutes later, Thenio stopped drawing and looked over his sketch. It wasn't bad. But it would be nice if it had some color....

"Hey, Humerus...would it be okay if I use some of your crayons?"

The revenant paused his scribbling, and the puppet's wooden eyes swiveled to look up at Thenio.

Could he actually see out of those? Or was he just moving them to keep up appearances?

It was a little crazy that Brel had gone to the trouble of giving an octopus puppet moveable eyes in the first place.

"It's fine." Humerus pushed the crayon tin toward Thenio with one of his wooden tentacles. "I don't need all those. I'm just using a few to test this puppet."

"Ah...right. You said that earlier." Thenio gave a rather awkward smile. "Well...thanks."

He dug through the crayons and picked out several shades of grey and blue. Then he took one of the lighter shades and started coloring in his drawing.

He was nearly finished with the last layer of color when he heard footsteps and looked up to see Eteon approaching the bench.

"Are you done talking?" Thenio asked, glancing over at the table. The others still seemed to be immersed in the papers that were spread across it.

"Not yet. I just came to check how you're doing," Eteon said, giving him a gentle smile. "What are you drawing?"

"Just a second. I'm almost done." Thenio finished coloring in the dark grey of the tail tuft. Then he handed the sketchbook to Eteon.

"Oh?" Eteon raised his eyebrows a little as he looked at the drawing. "Isn't this one of the drakes you drew yesterday? From your dream about the sheep?"

"Right. That's the one named Cloud." Thenio fidgeted a little. "Hey...I've been thinking.... Ariom said I probably won't ever be able to have a familiar with high magic power, like a dragon. But he thought it might be possible with a low-powered magic beast. So after I had that dream, I wondered if something like a drake might work."

Eteon looked up at him. "You want a familiar?"

"Well...no...I mean...not now..." Thenio stammered. "But...someday? Maybe?" He scratched his cheek awkwardly. "My magic isn't stable enough to form a familiar contract right now, is it? And it wouldn't really be fair to ask a magic beast to form a contract with me when I...I might not live that much longer.... It's just...."

He trailed off, staring at the climbing tree, where Iggy and Brel were still playing together. The dragon was teasing the Forest Man by running back and forth through one of the tunnels, which were too small for Brel to enter. He would go to one end and poke his head out, wait for the Forest Man to come close, then run back through to the other end, where he'd stick his head out again to lure Brel over. Then back to the first end. They'd been repeating this for a while now.

If Brel were treating the game seriously, he probably would have stopped going back and forth by now and just waited somewhere until Iggy gave up and left the tunnel. But he was obviously humoring the little dragon, who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Thenio could hear him giggling as he ran through the tunnel.

"I really like having magic beasts around. Iggy is a lot of work, but he's fun. And Tava and Amisi are both really sweet and are always worrying about me. Other familiars have been helping me out a lot, too, like Kino and Casturi and that mist tiger.... Oh, and Humerus, of course," Thenio added hastily, noticing that the octopus had stopped coloring and was giving him an expectant wooden stare. "Revenants are...uh...interesting. Really interesting. And he protected us from that explosion, right? That was pretty amazing. Not that I'd be able to get a spectral beast license, of course.... But anyway, I just think having a familiar sounds nice. Like...." He looked down at the ground. "Like a friend that's always there. One who won't dislike me because of my magic...and can't get given away when I'm not home...."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

There was a moment of silence.

"I see," Eteon said gently. Thenio felt a calloused hand lightly ruffle his hair. "Well, it might be difficult to find a magic beast that's suitable for you. But I'll keep an eye out for one, all right?"

Thenio looked up, his eyes widening a little. "Really? You think it's actually possible?"

"Of course it's possible. It just might take some time." Eteon smiled wistfully as he looked back at Thenio's drawing. "My wife has always liked drakes and dragons, too. You remind me of her sometimes."

"I do?" Thenio blinked. "Oh."

He didn't really know anything about Eteon's wife—not even her name. He just knew that she was away most of the time and that a hint of loneliness always crept into Eteon's eyes whenever he mentioned her.

"Is your wife a mythic beast's agent, like you?" he asked tentatively.

Eteon shook his head. "No. She works with the mythics, like I do, but in a different capacity. I'm sorry...it's not really something I can explain to you right now. All I can say is that she's much more resilient to demon corruption than I am, so she's off fighting on the front lines...." He gave a bitter smile. "...while I have to stay as far in the back as I can. That's why we don't see each other very often."

"Oh," Thenio said again. He wasn't sure what else to say. "Um...so she's like a battlemage? Like Namyis?"

Eteon chuckled. "A little like that, yes. The two of them would probably enjoy swapping stories. Too bad it's so difficult to arrange a meeting right now...but maybe someday."

Thenio looked down and fidgeted with his pencil a little. "Namyis asked me to paint something for her a few weeks ago. She said she'd seen the painting I sent to General Obarin and really liked it, so she wanted one, too. She said she'd pay me for it, even."

"Well, she seems to have good taste in artwork. What did you say?"

"I didn't really say anything." Thenio's fidgeting intensified. "It was the first day we met—that time I accidentally copied her magic. So there was kind of a lot going on. Ariom told her to wait and ask me again once things calmed down. Well, I'll probably do it if she still wants me to. I like Namyis, so I'd be happy to paint something for her. Though the idea of getting paid for it is a little...."

He heard Eteon sigh. "Thenio.... Haven't I told you not to believe anything that Ashia says? She's a greedy, poisonous little snake who's jealous of your talent and fed you a pack of lies to try to tear you down. You deserve to be an artist every bit as much as she does. More, if anything. You draw and paint because you enjoy it. She just does it to get attention."

"I know. I know that...but...it's just hard not to think about what she'd say if she found out...."

"And why do you need to care what she says? You're in a completely different place than you were the last time you saw her. You're working for a grandmaster enchanter. You're friends with a famous battlemage. Kafron's top general is concerned about your well-being. The Magic Corps and the Royal Guard just did an all-out emergency raid in order to save your life. You have a mythic beast watching over you and giving you magic lessons. With all those powerful people on your side...why does it matter in the slightest what your bratty cousin thinks? So what if she's Baron Josen's granddaughter? Ki'shiu can boss the king himself around if he feels like it. What's a lowly baron supposed to do to you?"

"That...I mean...you have a point...."

It did seem a little silly, looking at it from that perspective. It was probably true that Ashia couldn't do much to him anymore. And the most she'd ever been able to do was to steal his things and tell lies to get him in trouble. Compared with somebody like Vehnkir, she really wasn't a threat at all.

But still...Thenio had spent most of his childhood being terrified of her. You couldn't just forget things like that, no matter how silly they were.

Eteon sighed again and reached out to stroke Thenio's hair. "I know it's hard," he said gently. "She put you through a lot. I've honestly been tempted to get rid of her sometimes...."

Wait, what? Thenio's cheek twitched. Was Eteon seriously talking about potentially offing his cousin?

Scary....

"But you need to do your best to move past all that," Eteon went on, as though he hadn't said anything unusual. He handed the sketchbook back to Thenio. "You really are a good artist, you know? I think doing a few commissions would be a good idea. It should help build your confidence a little."

"Uh...right. Namyis gave me her message book page, so I'll contact her about it. I need to thank her for buying me those pastries, too." Thenio glanced uncertainly up at Eteon. "You wouldn't...really get rid of Ashia, would you? That was just a joke...right?"

Eteon smiled grimly. "Let's just say she's lucky that your mother stopped taking you over to play with your cousins after your magic became less stable. I'm not sure if my patience would have held out otherwise."

Really scary....

Deciding it was better not to think about that particular subject any more, Thenio looked down at the drawing of Cloud.

What would Namyis want him to paint? He was kind of curious about it. It had sounded like she already had something in mind. Some kind of magic beast, maybe? She liked them a lot, and she knew he liked drawing and painting them.

And what should he ask her to pay for it? He really had no idea how much one of his paintings was worth. He didn't feel like they were worth very much, and he didn't really care about the money anyway. But he had a feeling that Ariom and Eteon would both scold him if he tried to do it for free.

Hadn't the Enchanter's Guild master said she would teach him about aesthetic enchanting if he wanted? Maybe he could ask her about commission prices....

"Eteon's right. You do draw good pictures. I wish you'd made it a different color, though."

Thenio jumped a little at the voice and turned to the side. A wooden octopus was floating in the air near his left shoulder, looking down at the sketchbook.

"I don't like blue dragons," Humerus went on. "Though I guess that's really a drake.... But they look a lot like dragons, right? So close enough. Red would be a better color, don't you think? I like red."

"Uh...right. Red's a good color," Thenio agreed awkwardly. "But this drake really was blue. Most magic beasts can't change color like you can, you know? So if they're born blue, there's only so much they can do about it. Doesn't Seyli's family breed blue dragons?"

"Yes." Humerus somehow managed to make the octopus' face look annoyed. "And I don't like them."

"Oh." Thenio blinked a few times. What exactly was wrong with blue dragons? He was rather fond of that color, personally. "Uh...it's sort of hard to change the color on this picture. Crayons don't really work that way.... So how about I draw a new one for you? We can make it whatever color you want." He quickly turned to a new page before Humerus got too irritated at the blue drake and burned up the sketchbook or something.

"Good," the revenant said happily. He landed on Thenio's shoulder, wrapping a few tentacles around his upper arm to hold himself in place.

Thenio made a face. He really hadn't been planning to draw with a wooden octopus sitting on his shoulder.... But he obligingly started sketching a new picture of Cloud.

If he colored it red with green eyes, it would probably look a lot like Humerus had in that dream, when he'd changed his scales into fur in order to cuddle with young Ariom.

Thenio frowned a little at that thought and paused to glance over at the patio table. He hadn't told Ariom about that dream yet. He probably should, shouldn't he? But he knew Ariom hated the idea of anyone looking at his memories with mental magic, so he presumably wouldn't be too happy with someone spying on his dreams, either, even though Thenio hadn't done it on purpose.

Would he get upset? Probably. But he'd probably get even more upset if Thenio didn't tell him and he somehow found out later. So how to bring it up...? Thenio had no idea. He normally would have asked Bero for his advice, but right now that was a little....

Well. He'd think about it later, when his head was clearer. Right now he had a fluffy red drake to draw.

"He's still mad at me, isn't he?"

Ariom stopped in the middle of writing a note on Thenio's magic circuit diagrams and followed his uncle's gaze to look over at the bench where Thenio and Humerus' new puppet were sitting. "Which one? Thenio or Eteon?"

"Thenio. I know Eteon's still mad...." Uncle Bero sighed. "And I guess he has a right to be. I shouldn't have said what I did while Thenio was listening. But how can I not feel that way?" He looked back down at the papers spread out in front of him. "These scans are ridiculous. His magic circuits are such a mess...I don't even know where to start trying to untangle them. And it sounds like separating them wouldn't help anyway. So what are we supposed to do?"

According to Eteon, they actually had tried separating previous chaos morphs' circuits, but it hadn't worked. Or rather, it worked, but the effect was only temporary. The separated circuits would gradually grow back together. The process could be repeated, but it put strain on both the body and the magic circuit, so there were limits to how often it could be done. Plus, it was extremely painful, and Eteon said he wasn't willing to put Thenio through that kind of torture unless they could find a way to make it last.

Uncle Bero turned to look at Focilo. "How are you taking this so well? You've lost even more chimera patients than I have. You really still think it's possible to save Thenio?"

Focilo shrugged. "Does it matter what I think? The Dream Lord wants to save him, and the Forest Lord wants me to help. So I'll do the best I can, regardless of how impossible it seems. That's my duty as an agent and as Thenio's doctor."

Ariom raised an eyebrow. "You seem to have an awful lot of confidence in those mythics...."

"You would, too, if you knew them," Focilo said simply. He looked out at the climbing tree, his eyes following Brel as he jumped easily through the branches in pursuit of Iggy. "They're not stupid, you know. The Dream Lord wouldn't have kept trying to help the chaos morphs all this time unless he honestly believed it was possible. So no, I don't feel like it's hopeless, even if my experience as a doctor is telling me that it should be."

Uncle Bero stared at him for a moment. Then he gave a wry smile. "You're kind of making me wish I could meet a mythic beast."

"You probably can, if you really want to. Ask Eteon about it. Or Brel...but it will be a lot easier if Eteon is willing to help with transportation. Most mythics live in places that aren't easy to get to via normal methods of travel."

"Really? An ordinary person like me can get an audience with a mythic beast that easily?" Uncle Bero looked rather taken aback.

"You're not ordinary. You're someone who's working on the Dream Lord's pet project. So I expect they'll show you some extra courtesy because of that."

"Well, that seems fair," Ariom said. "Though I'm honestly more relieved than resentful that no mythics have come to visit us yet. Just the brief contact I had with Ket'shiu during the raid was overwhelming enough. I can only imagine what meeting him in person would be like."

Focilo chuckled a little. "He's a bit much, it's true. He's very kind, though. And the atmosphere around him is incredibly peaceful once you get used to it."

"Are there any mythic beasts who use fire magic?" Humerus spoke up suddenly.

"Fire magic?" Focilo repeated, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, there are a few. There's one that lives in the volcano region whose domain is lava-related. And I believe there's a lower-ranking fire mythic somewhere in the northern mountains. The phoenix is also associated with fire, of course. And there's a mythic whose territory is in the Zoko Desert, but I'm not sure if her domain specifically includes fire or not."

"Why do you want to know about mythics with fire magic?" Ariom asked, frowning.

"No reason." Humerus shifted uncomfortably and looked away. "Just because."

Uncle Bero smiled and patted the revenant's back. "Are you thinking about trying to get some mythic beast magic for Tamon to eat?"

"No." Humerus gave an irritated sniff. "Why would I bother getting a special treat for that greedy food thief?"

"I see. My mistake." Uncle Bero patted him again. "Well...maybe when Eteon comes back we can find out just how easy it would really be to have a chat with a mythic beast."