Chapter 17: Chapter 17 – The Dragon Princess

Thenio released the bowstring and watched as his arrow flew across the training room and hit the target with a satisfying thud.

Unfortunately, it hit the outer edge of the large ringed circle, not the center where he'd been aiming. And the target wasn't even that far away.... But considering he hadn't been able to hit it at all when he'd started a couple of days ago, it was at least a small improvement.

Bero had recommended that Thenio add some kind of sport or martial art to his physical training, to help improve his coordination and mental focus. He'd suggested archery mostly for the convenience, since Ariom practiced it, and Thenio had agreed to try it out for a few weeks.

"That looks good," Ariom said, watching from the side. "Don't worry about the aim being off. That will come with practice. The important thing right now is to get the proper form down, and you're doing well with that. You seem to have trained your back and shoulder muscles quite a lot already—that makes things easier."

"Oh, that's because I did acrobatics classes all through general school. It takes a lot of upper body strength, so I got used to doing that kind of training."

"Acrobatics, huh...?" Ariom's expression turned dark at the word.

"Just when I was in general school," Thenio added hastily. "I know it's not that practical. But we had to do some kind of exercise class, and they told us it didn't really matter which one, so I just picked that one. I did the standard physical training class once I started at the Academy because the specialized ones took up too much time."

That was actually the reason his parents gave for telling him to stop, rather than his own motivation. But the result was the same.

"What?" Ariom looked surprised. "No, there's nothing wrong with acrobatics. It's just...a personal thing." He turned away, looking uncomfortable. "If you enjoyed it and would rather do that instead of archery, I can arrange to get you some equipment. Though it might take some time...."

"No, it's fine! I mean, I did like it.... But you're already doing so much for me, and I really don't want to impose on you any more than I have to. And I like archery, too! Well...I guess I've only done it for a few days now...so I don't exactly know yet...but it's been pretty fun so far...so...um...." Thenio trailed off, fidgeting with the bow in his hands.

They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, not looking at each other.

Ariom cleared his throat. "Well. Let's talk about it later. Iggy let me know a few minutes ago that Seyli is here. So we'll end your training here for today."

Thenio nodded and started silently gathering up his arrows. When all the equipment was put away, they went upstairs to clean up and change out of their training clothes.

Before leaving his room, Thenio paused next to the bed. There were two wooden figurines on the bedside table. A dream beast and a calico cat. He'd felt a little shy about setting them out at first. But Iggy and Humerus had caught him while he was drawing some sketches of the dream beast from memory, and the following barrage of questions had eventually led to him getting Eteon's carving out to show them. Neither of the two familiars seemed to think there was anything wrong with a sixteen-year-old boy having a figurine that was supposed to keep bad dreams away. And thinking about Iggy's impressive toy collection and Humerus' fondness for puppets, Thenio decided that a couple of wooden carvings didn't really seem so out of place in this house.

He sat on the side of the bed and picked up the dream beast. The dream from a couple of nights ago was still lingering in his mind, as was the conversation with Bero and Ariom that seemed to have inspired it.

In the end, Bero asking if Thenio was really human seemed to be mostly a rhetorical question. They didn't seriously think he was anything else, and they didn't seem to be all that bothered by the fact that he could absorb magic. It was just another aspect of his chaos affinity that needed to be studied and dealt with.

And Thenio had always had strange, vivid dreams. This recent one wasn't really unusual. There was no reason to think it meant anything in particular.

It was just...well, he didn't even know what it was. He just had a vague, unsettled feeling, like he'd forgotten something important.

Thenio shook his head and set the figure back down. This wasn't the time to dwell on all that. Ariom had told him to come to the atrium when he was done cleaning up so that he could meet Ariom's cousin Seyli and her dragon, Tava.

The two of them had apparently been coming to Ariom's house regularly for the past couple of years so that Tava and Iggy could play together. At first, Ariom had told Seyli to hold off for a few weeks until Thenio had a functional magic insulation device. But after testing Thenio's reaction to magic of various kinds in different situations, Bero and Ariom had discovered that he seemed to be oddly compatible with life magic. He absorbed it just like the other types, but it took a much larger amount to make his magic power destabilize. They still hadn't come up with any explanation for this, but since Seyli had a life affinity, like Bero, there didn't seem to be any problem with her being around Thenio, even if she was still a student and didn't have perfect control over her magic yet.

As he reached the end of the hallway and entered the balcony, Thenio could hear singing coming from down in the atrium. He recognized the melody of a popular children's song.

I had a little gryphon egg.
I put it in a hat.
I asked him, "My good gryphon, sir,
What do you think of that?"

I told him he looked handsome.
I told him he looked cute.
And when he hatched, my gryphon
Wore a fancy velvet suit!

Thenio had learned this song at school when he was younger. There were a lot of different versions, since children enjoyed making up additional verses where the gryphon did all kinds of silly things. Some versions also swapped out the gryphon for a dragon or a wyvern.

I had a little gryphon egg.
I put it in a pot.
And set it in the kitchen,
Where the stove was very hot.

He watched me while I mixed,
And he watched me while I baked.
And when he hatched, my gryphon
Went and ate up all the cake!

The words were being sung by a sweet female voice, accompanied by a chorus of...what was that? It was a little reminiscent of wolves howling, but it was in perfect harmony with the music. A beautiful, slightly unearthly sound.

Thenio crossed the balcony, following the singing. After descending the stairs, he stopped, feeling a bit stunned by the scene in front of him. It could have come straight out of a child's storybook. A teenage girl was seated on the grass under the oak tree with three dragons sitting around her, and the four of them were singing together.

The girl was presumably Seyli Ayerin, Ariom's cousin, but Thenio might have believed it if someone told him she was a princess. The way she sat was graceful and poised. Her golden brown hair was pulled up in an elegant twist with several curls artistically arranged on top of it. And she was wearing a stylish, light pink dress that had white flowers embroidered around the bottom of the wide skirt.

Thenio wished he'd brought his sketchbook with him. This would make a beautiful picture....

He suddenly realized he'd been staring at the girl for far too long and quickly looked away, his face turning slightly red.

He had no business getting interested in girls when he didn't even know if he'd be alive a year from now. Most girls thought he was creepy and avoided him, anyway. Not to mention that a high-class girl like that would probably never look twice at an academy dropout like him.

Trying to distract himself from that unhappy train of thought, Thenio focused on the three dragons. One of them was Iggy, of course. There was a green dragon next to him that was the right size and shape to be Humerus with skin on, even though Thenio had never seen him wearing that particular color before. Since everything apart from his bones was just a magic construct, Humerus could make it whatever color he wanted, and he seemed to enjoy changing color randomly just to mess with people. Thenio didn't really like this, since it reminded him of his own randomly changing magic crystals. But he hadn't complained since it wasn't actually hurting anything, and the revenant had otherwise been keeping his promise of not playing pranks.

The last dragon was a female and was noticeably bigger than the other two—about the size of a large housecat. She was a light orchid color with violet on her legs and tail and gold highlights on her back and wings. It was like a reversed sunset.

"Oh, here he is," said Bero's voice.

Thenio jumped a little and looked over. There was a patio area at the base of the stairs with a couple of round picnic tables on it. Bero and Ariom were seated at one of them. They weren't far away from where Thenio was standing, but he'd been so focused on the group under the tree that he hadn't even seen them.

He felt his face grow warm again. They hadn't noticed him staring at Seyli...had they? They weren't giving him any murderous looks, so probably not. Bero was actually smiling and waving him over.

As Thenio walked toward the table, the last verse of the song ended, and the little group seemed to notice he was there.

"Thenio's here!" Iggy jumped up and flew over to land on Thenio's shoulder. "Thenio, look! Tava and Seyli came to play with us! We were singing Humerus' favorite song about gryphon eggs. Did you hear it?"

"I never said it was my favorite song. You just started saying that because it mentions my favorite food." Humerus also flew over and landed on the table next to Bero. "And the eggs in the song all hatch into gryphons and do ridiculous things instead of letting themselves get eaten like gryphon eggs should. So what good is that?"

He'd still been singing along with them, though....

And he was actually flying with his wings like a proper dragon for once. What brought that on? He usually just floated around like some kind of creepy skeletal balloon. Did Seyli not like seeing his skeleton form or something?

The girl in question had gracefully gotten to her feet and was holding out her left arm. "Tava, up."

The purple dragon obediently flew up and perched on Seyli's arm, where she sat quietly, looking like a large purple falcon, while Seyli carried her over to them.

Iggy, in the meantime, was still chattering away. "Tava is my cousin, remember? One of my lots of cousins. She's not a familiar yet, so she can't talk. But she's super smart, and she knows lots of words, okay? So she can understand us as long as we don't say hard things. And Tava is super nice! She plays with me a lot! And she sings with me and takes naps with me and washes my face when I'm sad. And she doesn't ever pick on me like Humerus does."

"I don't pick on you!" Humerus said with his ears back, apparently unhappy about the unfavorable comparison. "I just tease you."

"That's the same as picking on me," Iggy retorted, also looking grumpy.

"It's not! Teasing is just my way of playing. So I play with you a lot, too, see? I even sing with you! I can't wash your face or take naps together because I don't have a real tongue and my bones fall apart when I sleep, so those ones aren't fair!"

"Humerus, calm down." Bero patted his back soothingly. "Iggy likes you fine. But he's still a baby, so it's normal for him to be more attracted to a motherly figure like Tava."

"I'm not a baby!" Iggy pouted. "I'm a big, strong dragon!"

A big, strong dragon who was only seven inches tall....

"Ah, sorry. My mistake," Bero said, nodding agreeably. "That's right. You're a big, strong dragon who's still growing even bigger and stronger."

Iggy huffed a little but seemed satisfied with that response.

"And don't mind Humerus," Bero told Thenio. "Since Tava is still a natural dragon, she doesn't really understand the concept of revenants, and she gets spooked by Humerus if he doesn't look and act like a living dragon. He understands that and goes along with it, but it puts him in a bad mood."

"Hmph." Humerus looked away disdainfully. But he didn't seem to object to the fact that Bero was still stroking his back.

Bero sighed. "Anyways. The introductions got a little derailed there. Thenio, this is Seyli Ayerin. She's technically my cousin's daughter, but her father and I are almost like brothers, so she's always called me her uncle. Seyli, this is Thenio Iterune. Ariom's new assistant."

"I'm very pleased to meet you." Seyli smiled and held out her hand in a formal greeting. Now that she was closer, Thenio could see that she had beautiful aqua-colored eyes.

He put his hand lightly under hers and bowed his head a little. "The pleasure is mine." It was the first time in his life that he felt grateful for all the etiquette drills his mother had put him through every time they went to Aunt Suliya's house.

"I guess Iggy already introduced her, but this is Tava," Seyli said, lowering her hand and turning to her dragon. "Can you say hello?"

The purple dragon made a chirping noise and swished her tail a little.

"Nice to meet you, Tava," Thenio said, smiling. Then he looked uncertainly at Seyli. "Um...sorry, but this is the first time I've met a dragon who isn't a familiar. Does she really understand what we're saying?"

"Well, not entirely." Seyli lightly stroked Tava's chest with her finger. "In human terms, she's about at the level of a two or three year old. She has a hard time with complicated sentence structures or abstract concepts, but if you ask her something like whether she wants to play in the sandbox, or if she wants fish or chicken for dinner, she'll understand and be able to respond. And dragons are very sensitive to things like a person's emotional state and tone of voice. She can figure out a lot of what you're trying to communicate just based on that."

"She usually seems to understand what Iggy says," Ariom put in. "So you should be fine as long as you talk to her on about that level. You don't really need to treat her much differently than you do him."

"She doesn't get any of my jokes, though..." Humerus muttered sulkily.

Bero patted his back again. "That's because your jokes are all corny puns, you silly skeleton. A dragon's brain literally isn't built for processing things like that. It's actually pretty amazing that she understands as much as she does. Just wait a few more years until she becomes a familiar. Then you can tell her all the jokes you want. I'm sure she'll love them."

"Right!" Iggy said, nodding. "Humerus tells good jokes!"

Humerus' ears perked up a bit at that. Iggy's opinion seemed to mean quite a lot to him. Though it was a little hard to tell exactly how much of his sulking was genuine in the first place and how much was just an act.

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If there was one thing Thenio had learned about revenants in the past few days, it was that you couldn't expect their thought processes to follow human logic at all.

"Are you planning to wait until you graduate from the academy to form a familiar contract?" Thenio asked, thinking it was better to divert the subject away from Humerus' grievances.

"That's right. I'm in my second year now, and I'm studying magic beast healing, which is a five year program. So it will be about three more years." Seyli moved closer to the table and held her arm above the surface so that Tava could hop off. "Tava's already an adult, and I'm probably going to reach sorcerer level in another year or two, so we could do it sooner. But pretty much everyone I've asked has recommended waiting so that I don't have to worry about school while we're adjusting to the contract."

Having to decide whether to wait or form a contract early because you already owned a mature dragon and were close to sorcerer level while you were still in school.... What nice problems to have.

"I guess being interested in magic beasts is a family thing?" Thenio asked, glancing at Bero and trying to push aside his feelings of jealousy.

Bero chuckled a little. "Well, pretty much. The Ayerin branch of the family runs a dragon hatchery. That's how Seyli managed to get her own dragon at such a young age." He nodded in Tava's direction.

Thenio felt another surge of envy as he looked at the purple dragon. Really. Being born as a life affinity with higher than average magic power into a family that would give you a free dragon? What kind of crazy luck did this girl have?

"I know that look." Seyli scowled a little as she sat down at the table next to Bero. "It's true I had the opportunity to get a dragon because of my family, but they didn't just give her to me for free, you know? My grandmother has always said that people don't properly appreciate their familiars if they don't have to work for them. I helped out at the hatchery all through general school. I still do when I go home during term breaks." She patted Tava. "You wouldn't believe how many litter pans I had to empty in order to get this little girl...."

Thenio, who was in the process of sitting down on Bero's other side, paused and blinked at that, a bit startled by the idea of this elegant princess cleaning out dragon litter boxes.

"Iggy came from the Ayerin Hatchery, too," Ariom said. "I did pay for him, but the price was lower than usual because I sometimes help them out with enchanting work. Well, it was also because Iggy was...in a special situation, let's say. It's a long story. But that's what he means when he says he has a lot of cousins. He's talking about other dragons who come from the same hatchery. Well, they all have common ancestry, so it's technically not wrong."

"Humerus, too? I remember Iggy called him his 'sort-of-cousin'. Does that mean he...I mean his...oh...um...his...bones...?" Thenio flushed. He had realized partway through that he was asking a very insensitive question, but he couldn't quite figure out how to salvage it.

"That's right," Bero said, seemingly unperturbed. "The dragon whose body Humerus is living in came from there. He was born with some physical defects—they turn up every once in a while no matter how careful you are with breeding. The staff at the hatchery did their best to save him, but he just had too many health problems. So he only lived a few years. That's why Humerus is on the small side—his body isn't quite fully developed." He stroked Humerus' back. "I had helped out with some skeletal reconstruction work while the dragon was still alive, so my magic signature was literally written into his bones. That made them an ideal vessel to use when I decided to contract with a revenant."

"Oh." Thenio didn't know what else to say. Bero spoke casually, but he and Humerus had a slight air of tension around them that suggested there was more to the story. Thenio didn't dare to ask any more questions, though.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Well, it's getting late, and everyone's probably getting hungry." Ariom stood up. "I had better go work on lunch."

"Do you want any help?" Seyli asked, looking a little relieved at the change of subject.

Ariom shook his head. "No, that's fine. I have things mostly prepared already. I just have to set them out."

Iggy jumped down from Thenio's shoulder onto the table and ran over to Ariom. "Since Tava and Seyli are here, can't we go visit Mr. Kraken for lunch? Thenio and Uncle Bero and Humerus haven't met him yet!"

"Sorry, little guy," Ariom said, rubbing Iggy's head. "We can't go out to restaurants right now because of Thenio, remember? We'll take everyone there another time." He looked at Bero. "There's a restaurant called The Kraken's Kitchen that opened up a few months ago over by the lake. As you might guess from the name, they're very friendly to magic beasts. Iggy loves it, so we've been going there quite a lot lately."

"Their spicy fish balls are super tasty!" the little black dragon chimed in.

"They even have a menu specialized for magic eaters, so I think Humerus would like it, too." Ariom glanced at Thenio. "But, like I said, it's not an option right now. Taking Thenio to a restaurant that serves all kinds of spiced foods and is usually full of wizards and magic beasts is just begging for an accident to happen. We'll go once we get his magic insulation figured out."

Thenio looked down at the table. "I'm sorry.... I guess you can't even go without me, can you?"

The doctors at the Stability Center had been quite firm about him needing to have an adult magic user nearby at all times to be sure he could get medical help quickly if...no, when...his magic exploded again.

"Don't be silly," Bero said, reaching over to pat Thenio on the shoulder. "It's not something you need to apologize for. We'll just go another time. It's fine."

"Why don't we eat out here on the patio?" Ariom suggested. "It's not going out, but it's still a change of pace." He patted Iggy's back. "And if you want fish, we have some fire trout in the icebox. You and Tava can have that for lunch, all right?"

"Mmm! Okay!" Iggy's tail started waving.

Tava gave a chirp of affirmation and waved her tail as well. Apparently she was also fond of fish.

"That sounds nice," Seyli said with a smile.

Bero nodded in agreement.

But Thenio bit his lip. "I...I could eat up in my room, if you want," he offered in a small voice. He glanced at Bero. "Didn't you say that you don't get to see Seyli that often? It would be better if you could have a nice visit without me here making everyone uncomfortable...wouldn't it?"

An odd silence greeted these words. Looking around anxiously, Thenio saw that everyone was staring at him with confused expressions.

"What are you talking about? Why would you make us uncomfortable?" Seyli tilted her head to one side, just like Iggy did when he was puzzling over something.

It was seriously cute.

Thenio was briefly dazzled, but he shook his head to regain his focus. "You don't need to hide it. I already know that most other people don't like being around me. They say I'm creepy or I give them a bad feeling. The other kids in school always avoided me, and the teachers never really liked me either. Even my family—" He broke off and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Anyways, I get it. I make people uncomfortable. So I can understand if you want me to leave for a while."

Seyli blinked at him. "No, really. I don't know what you're talking about. 'Creepy'? 'Bad feeling'? I don't feel anything like that." She looked between Ariom and Bero. "Do you?"

Ariom shook his head, frowning a little. "No. And there wasn't any mention of that in his medical files. If most people feel that way, you'd think at least one doctor would have made a note of it."

"Thenio doesn't feel bad!" Iggy said, trotting back over and standing up with his front paws on Thenio's arm, which was resting on the table. "He feels super comfy!"

Bero and Humerus were looking at each other silently, as they often did when some kind of problem came up. Thenio had finally figured out that they were probably having a telepathic conversation through their familiar bond when they did this. After a long moment, they both turned and looked at Thenio.

"You said 'most people' feel uncomfortable around you," Bero said gently. "Does that mean there are some exceptions?"

"A couple. My brother Kleyo. And Eteon." Thenio looked down at Iggy, who was still standing on his arm and looking up at him with a concerned expression. "And magic beasts, I guess, if that counts."

"It does," Bero said slowly, also looking at Iggy. "That counts for quite a lot, I think." He turned to Tava, who was watching them curiously. "Speaking of which, Tava hasn't shown much of a reaction, but that could just be because Seyli has trained her so well."

"Tava," Ariom said, causing the purple dragon to turn her head and look at him. He pointed at Thenio. "This is Thenio. Do you like Thenio?"

Tava made a humming sound and then chirped several times, while nodding her head and waving her tail.

"Well, there you go. That's a pretty enthusiastic 'yes'. So it's not just a familiar thing." He looked at Thenio. "Did any of the staff at the Stability Center act like they were uncomfortable while you were there?"

"A few did."

"Who? Do you remember?"

Thenio fidgeted a little in his seat. "A few of the apprentices. And one of the receptionists seemed especially anxious whenever I came in."

"What about the doctors?"

"Not that I noticed. But I just figured they were professional enough not to show it."

Ariom glanced at Bero. "Did Focilo say anything about this when you talked to him?"

"He said Thenio was a very pleasant young man," Bero said with a wry smile. "Very intelligent and polite. Which is pretty much how I would describe him, too. So there are a couple more exceptions to add to your list."

He and Ariom exchanged a meaningful look.

"So is this another crazy chaos magic thing?" Ariom asked, grimacing a little.

Bero nodded. "Probably."

"I don't remember anything like that in the Association records.... Well, I guess we already know they're not completely reliable."

"It's possible they didn't even notice this one. We probably wouldn't have, if he hadn't specifically brought it up. We'll need to do some tests to be sure, but based on what he said, it probably only affects people with lower magic power. Below sorcerer level, maybe? And the Association researchers would have been at least low-rank sorcerers. Same with the doctors at the Stability Center. Of course, that doesn't explain why Seyli isn't affected.... But maybe the threshold is different for life mages." Bero gave Seyli a teasing smile. "And we probably shouldn't expect her to react like other humans. I mean, she's basically half dragon, right? Her magic beast side is probably canceling out the effect."

"Very funny," Seyli said drily. Then her expression became concerned as she looked back at Thenio. "But what, are you saying his magic is actually repelling people? I know you said it attracted magic beasts, and these three certainly seem to like him." She gestured at the familiars. "But it has the opposite effect on humans?"

"Humans with low magic power levels," Bero corrected. Then he sighed. "And yes, that's what it sounds like."

"That's...." Seyli stared at Thenio, her blue eyes filled with a mix of disbelief and sympathy. "That's really awful...."

Thenio bit his lip and lowered his head. His gaze fell on the arm Iggy was standing on, and he realized he was clenching his fist so hard the knuckles had turned white.

So that's what it had been? All this time...?

It always came back to that, didn't it? Everything wrong in his life seemed to stem from that stupid chaos magic.

That stupid, awful, horrible magic....

Thenio's dark thoughts were interrupted by a whimpering sound. For a second, he thought it was Iggy, but when he looked up, he saw Tava trotting over to him. She put her front paws up on his shoulder and started licking his cheek.

Oh. So this is what Iggy was talking about when he said Tava washed his face when he was sad.

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