Chapter 21
Tori’s first full day in the castle started with a critical meeting, one he was more than a little nervous about.
Baldewin kept assuring him it was just a conversation, to not be worried about formalities, but since he was meeting with both the king of the Fire Dragons and the head mage, Tori would be nervous, thank you very much.
They sat in King Alric’s office, situated in the chairs and couch. Baldewin kept close to him, and Tori was ridiculously reassured by that. He sat at the edge of his seat, not able to relax into it with King Alric directly across from him.
He truly was a handsome man, even more so in person than the picture Tori had seen of him.
Tori could see why Cameron would take one look and fall for the dragon king.
And Lisette looked ageless and graceful, like a movie star sliding into her golden years.
Tori was ever so glad now that Baldewin had bought him new clothes.
Meeting these two in the ratty jeans and pull-over shirt he normally wore would have been, just, no.
“Thank you for meeting with us like this,” Alric said to him sincerely.
“I know there’s much about our clan that you want to experience and take in.
I don’t mean to distract you from that. I just have many questions about the Jaeggi, as you’re the first trained mage to have interacted with them one-on-one.
I feel that your experience is invaluable. ”
“I’m happy to help however I can,” he answered with a faint smile. “It feels strange, is all. I grew up hearing that the Jaeggi were friends and allies. I’m not sure how the tables were turned so neatly that I now fear them as enemies.”
“Yes, it’s likely a very strange thing for you. Much as it was for us, before the Dragon War started.”
Oh. Oh, come to think of it, that would have been true.
The dragon clans and the Jaeggi had been friends and allies then, too, before Kaiser Jaeggi betrayed them.
That perspective flipped his mind even further, and he couldn’t help but ponder it for a moment.
Perhaps these dragons could empathize with him far better than he first assumed.
“Let us start from the beginning,” Lisette suggested, her voice smooth except for a slight, rough burr. “The first time you encountered the Jaeggi in Helsinki.”
“Yeah, that was a shi—uh”—Do not swear in front of royalty. Bad mouth—“crazy situation from start to finish. I didn’t know to be wary of them.”
“Sorry,” Baldewin sighed.
Tori knocked a shoulder against his, flashing him a smile.
He was glad they were on the couch together so he could do that.
“I’ve forgiven you already. But yeah, I just walked right up to them on the metro, as I didn’t know any better.
I could see from their auras that they had magic, and I needed magical supplies but wasn’t sure where in the city to go.
It’s not like you can just Google those stores. ”
“This is true.” Lisette had a sad expression on her face. “Not in these modern times do such stores so openly exist. So, you approached them.”
“Yeah.” Tori cast his mind’s eye back to that moment.
“I did think something was off. Their magical auras looked odd to me. But I passed it off as nothing, thinking that I’d only ever seen mages from my own clan.
Maybe it was normal for the other clans to look different from mine.
Now, of course, I realize it was just them. All of you have the right look.”
Lisette leaned forward, expression intent. “We’ve never had an opportunity to truly study their auras, as we are forever fighting when we do meet. Can you describe this more precisely?”
Tori frowned, trying to pull what he’d seen and instinctively understood into words.
“Fragmented? It’s not the right word. Maybe distorted?
As if their magical aura wasn’t really their own, but something borrowed and forced to fit around them.
It looked transparent, too. Cold. A mage’s aura should be more warm, almost golden at the edges.
This looked the opposite, like a ghost of what it should be. ”
“Interesting,” she murmured before taking a quick note on the notebook in her lap. “I’ve had that impression before myself, but I’ve never fully engaged with a Jaeggi mage one on one. Those who have either didn’t have magical sight or weren’t trained enough to recognize what they saw.”
He was apparently making sense. Thank fuck.
Tori had no idea how else to put it into words.
“Anyway, they were acting cagey and weird, and I was steadily regretting talking to them. But it wasn’t until I got out of the station with them that it went to hell.
They were adamant that because they didn’t know me, they’d have to blindfold me and tie me up before transporting me to a magic shop they knew.
And that’s when I dug in my heels. They stopped pretending to be nice at that point.
They tried to physically wrestle me into the van.
I thought I’d lost Baldewin and Warin, that they weren’t following me, so I tried to get myself out of there. I didn’t know I had backup.”
“I almost did lose you,” Baldewin admitted. “The metro station was packed with people. Fortunately, I kept track of your scent.”
Bless a dragon’s nose. Tori flashed him a quick smile. “Very fortunate, as the one spell I was able to pull off only bought me breathing room. It didn’t get me out of trouble entirely.”
“Yes, what did you do?” Lisette asked curiously. “Baldewin only said that you set the van on fire.”
“Oh. Well, I only had captured sunlight to work with. I had a vial in my pocket.” A little sheepishly—he knew he’d broken more than a few rules—he couldn’t quite meet her in the eye as he admitted, “I used a fire spell to ignite the engine compartment and blew the van to hell.”
Alric laughed in delight. “You’re a man after my own heart, Tori.”
Eh? Tori’s head came back up, and he stared in Alric in confusion.
“Of course you approve.” Lisette gave Alric a chiding look, much like a mother would a child. “As long as there’s fire and explosions, a fire dragon likes it.”
“I would like to point out”—the king said, his eyes dancing with mirth—“that historically speaking, blowing things to hell has worked out quite well for us.”
She just sighed and shook her head. But there was a trace of a smile on her lips, too. One that spoke of approval. “It was a very clever use of the sunlight. And that quick thinking likely saved you.”
Well, what do you know? It didn’t look like these two were nearly as strait-laced as his old clan leaders.
Tori did have to ask, though, as the question plagued him.
“It did mean revealing my magic and Warin’s dragon form, though.
Um, all three times I encountered the Jaeggi, there’s been some pretty serious magic being thrown around.
I guess I’m wondering how you’ll handle it? ”
Alric’s laughter died, and he groaned. “It’s indeed a question.”
“Hoheit.” Baldewin shifted a little, drawing their attention to him. “I think it’s inevitable that the world discovers magic and dragons are not as extinct as they like to think.”
“Yes, it will likely come to that.” Alric made a face, nose wrinkled up.
To Tori, he admitted, “After the Dragon War, we retreated into our homes to recover. We didn’t go out again for many years, as our loss and grief were too much.
Because of that, the world assumed us all dead.
We didn’t realize until we ventured out again. ”
That was interesting. “So, it wasn’t a conscious choice?”
“No, not at first. After, yes. With so few mages left, we had little in the means of protection, and we weren’t sure what the stragglers of the Jaeggi Clan or its allies might do.
We thought, why not let the assumption ride itself out for a few generations, wait for our enemies to die off of old age?
And then we realized that there was less politics involved, and it was easier all around to stay as we were. ”
“Um, but doesn’t that mean I’m messing that up?”
Alric waved his concern off. “I’m not overly worried about what you’ve exposed.
In truth, this modern age is very hard to hide in.
Social media alone makes it difficult. I’ve felt that our time in seclusion has been running out for some years now.
We’ll ride it out for a while longer, simply because I have too much going on as it is, and I will not mix in the politics of the world until I absolutely have to. ”
That was fair. In his position, Tori would likely feel the same.
Lisette cleared her throat lightly. “We got off track. The second time you encountered them, did they look the same to you?”
Tori blinked and refocused on her. “Yes. The third time, as well. And they didn’t really use much magic, which I found strange.
They were obviously prepared to strike at us, but they were using things like tranq darts and didn’t seem to have any magical elements on them.
And the fight at the hotel was weird, in retrospect.
Four mages, all of them hovering around Cassie like vultures over roadkill.
Even after I threw fireballs at them, they just focused on putting the fire out.
They didn’t counter-attack. It was like they had nothing to fight me with.
The only mage who used magic was the one pulling from Cassie, and even he did limited magic. Just a shield.”
Lisette scribbled this down and asked, “What spell did he use?”
“Personal deflective shield.”
“And the draining of the magic?”