Besides Cami and the bear cubs, everyone in this room was my enemy. Five of them were powerful adventurers who I had committed to killing for murdering my sister and driving me from the only home I'd ever known. Of course, none of them knew that I was the dragon they had tried to kill. None of them knew about the desire for vengeance which burned in my chest.

  I sat and Serius began speaking. "The crystal ball will assess your blood and from it will determine two primary things. First, it will test your general magical potential. The brighter the orb gets, the greater your magical potential."

  "What do you mean by potential? Isn't that really just a question of your Mind stat and, by default, the amount of mana you possess?"

  "I could see why you might think that,” the wizard responded. “There is much more to it, however, than that. I could try to explain it, but you simply lack the basic understanding which the first year at the university will provide. Simply put, two different mages can have the same level, same Mind stat, and same amount of mana. Yet a mage with a higher magical potential will find that spells cost less to cast and have greater impact."

  I nodded as I listened then asked, "And the second thing it tests?"

  "It will test your magical aptitudes. If you have strong enough aptitudes the orb will even show a variety of images to reflect pursuits which might match best with your aptitudes."

  "Galbrecht mentioned that term, pursuits, before. What does that mean?"

  "Ah, they are a group of broad categories for the way that magic can be used to create a class or profession. There are dozens of possible pursuits and a mage can easily have more than one pursuit."

  "What are the most common pursuits which I might gain?"

  "There are too many to list them all. In fact, it's theorized that there may be an infinite variety—but I can name the most common. Those would be different elemental specialists and specialists in a variety of different magical schools, such as illusions or summoning magic. Then there are more magical crafting pursuits—such as enchanting, alchemy, or runecrafting.

  "There are hybrid types of pursuits like battle mages, shadow specialists, and nature specialists. Finally, there are some of the more rare types—like wizards and divine magic users."

  I had been listening, but mostly, I'd run through all the possibilities. I believed that my odds were slim of surviving should my secret be exposed, but I had come up with a plan that had the best odds of success.

  Initially, I had thought about going for Serius first, but the longer I looked at him, the more I was able to sense the weaves of magic around him. He had multiple layers of protection. I decided my best plan if this testing uncovered my secret would be to launch myself at the priestess, Lisella. If I could quickly kill her, then close on Liam who would be their best ranged attacker, then I might be able to get outside.

  Gaining enough space and time for my transformation would be essential. The odds were still long, but it was the best I could come up with if I had to fight. I didn’t know that this test would expose me—but I didn’t know for sure that it wouldn’t.

  Now, though, it was time to do the test. I didn't wait for Serius to say anything further. Instead, I reached out and held my hand against the crystal ball. I felt a tiny prick and knew it was draining a drop of blood. Rather than pulling my hand back, I continued to palm the sphere while smiling at the wizard.

  The glow coming from the orb kept rising until it was practically shining out from between my fingers. The wizard arched his eyebrow and the other adventurers all stood up to get a better look.

  Cami gasped.

  Finally Lisella shouted, "Show us."

  I made a show of deliberately pulling each finger off and slowly pulling my hand back. It was petty, but when I didn't have the power to be bold these minor shows of defiance were all that I had.

  Four images ran across the orb. The first was a double pair of wings, the second a lightning bolt, the third a set of squiggly lines, and the fourth what looked like a glowing halo.

  Lisella gasped and even Serius arched an eyebrow.

  I smiled but didn't ask them what any of it meant. That would come later, but now was not the time to give them any type of satisfaction.

  "So, do I get in?"

  "With flying colors. It appears that we've found two prodigies in one town. You both will have professors lining up to become your mentors. Who knows? You might even find one before you reach the city of Urgoi, where the university is located. I'll only caution you that who your mentor is can have a great impact on your future."

  I nodded but then walked towards the stairs which led up to my room. The die was cast, I'd be stuck playing nice with these pathetic humans. They wouldn't know I was a dragon until the moment I killed them—and then Sheraleigh would be avenged.

  "Wait, where are you going?" Lisella asked. "We need to talk about your pursuits."

  I shrugged and glanced back over my shoulder. "I feel like sleeping now. Let me know when we'll be leaving for the university."

  I could feel the tension I left behind me and it brought a smile to my lips. Rollie and Patch started to follow me up the stairs without me calling them. I didn't really want the two over-grown bear cubs in my tiny room, but I wasn't going to show any sign of weakness.

  "Come on, you two." I said, not bothering to look back. "We all have a big day ahead of us."

  Once up in my room, I laid down on my bed. Both bear cubs pressed their heads against me. My mind was racing and I couldn't even be bothered to push them away. The question now was how I could get the most out of this group of adventurers.

  They were strong and it was only fitting that I learn from that strength—especially after all they had taken from me. The dragon dream taught that it was not weakness to make your enemy’s strengths your own. And while it was the place of a dragon to rest atop the bones of his enemy, as my ancestors had done, I found my curiosity to be a match for my anger.

  I pondered what the symbols on the orb had meant. I wanted to know more but hadn't been willing to ask. Let them come to me. I was confident, if I could be patient, that would happen. For now, I drifted off to dreams of being a wyrm again and razing a massive human city.

  When I woke the next morning, I could smell food coming from downstairs, but I had often gone weeks or even months without eating while living in the nest. A missed meal was not going to cause me to walk back down and let the adventurers think I needed them more than they needed me.

  Pride fills the soul better than food fills the belly. I don't know which of my dragon ancestors had said that, but it felt true to me in the moment. Sadly, Patch and Rollie weren't anywhere near so patient. They were no longer babies but growing cubs and nosed around my small room, looking for anything which might pass for food.

  Fortunately, Cami came to my door. It felt like it had been forever since I'd spoken to her, even though it had only been yesterday. Simply seeing her face lightened my heart. Perhaps I wasn't in this alone.

  Best of all she had a tray filled with several plates of food. "May I come in?"

  I nodded. She was my favorite pet or servant... I hadn't quite decided yet which she was. "Of course. Did you bring me food?"

  "Yeah, I was waiting downstairs for you but then got the sense you weren't coming. I guess you didn't want to talk to the adventurers. Someday, you'll have to tell me more of your story so I can understand… but today, I'm just excited to talk about the future."

  She set large chunks of ham down for the bear cubs to eat while handing me a plate loaded with pancakes and sausage. I loved the meat, but had discovered that this human body must have a weakness for sweets.

  "So, what are your plans?" Cami's voice was calming and she seemed genuinely interested in my future. I was taken aback for a moment; I wasn't used to someone caring about my plans. Sharing too much with any of my clutch mates would have been a surefire way to die.

  Only with Sheraleigh had that changed—and only because we were the last two. It likely worked because I was the strongest of the clutch, the one who beat out all the others, and she was the weakest, the one no one took as a threat.

  With Cami it felt different. I knew that there was a connection forged between us by the awakening of my magic, I just wasn't sure what impact it would have on me.

  "I'm not sure yet." That was true as far as the details went. I knew my plans in broad strokes. Learn about humans, master what would undoubtedly be their simplistic understanding of magic, get my revenge, and then find a pleasant place to begin building my hoard.

  She nodded and looked down as though I had just stepped on her foot and she was grimacing in pain.

  I didn't want to say those things out loud, not yet at least, so I did a very undragon-like thing. "I may not know what I want to do, but I'd love to hear about what you want for a future."

  Her face grew red. “Some of it depends on your plans. You will come to the university, won’t you?”

  “Yes, I think at least for a while it’s the right place for me to be.” I hesitated, not wanting to ask her the all-important question.

  She was waiting for me to speak but when I didn’t say anything she said, “You know I’d never share your secret with anyone. You can trust me with your very life.”

  Humans valued physical contact. I had begun to understand that and while I was far from an expert at human social interactions, things were easier with Cami. I reached out and took her hand in mine. She sucked in her breath and for a moment, I thought she had stopped breathing.

  When she finally exhaled I said, “I am trusting you with my life. You understand that dragons are very valuable to any number of mages. Alchemists and enchanters use a variety of our body parts for their crafts. Battle mages want armor made from our scales. Wizards use our bones as magical foci, and the list goes on. If they find out what I am, then they will undoubtedly kill me like…”

  I let my voice trail off at the end. She didn’t need to know my pain.

  The seconds ticked by and she never asked me what I’d been about to say. I could sense her curiosity but she didn’t press me in the slightest. I had truly found a good servant in Cami.

  Eventually, after a few minutes, she said, “I’m glad you’ll be there. I don’t know if I could bear to be separated but let me tell you about the images which appeared during my testing. I’ve had to bug Modessa non-stop to get her to explain what they all are—and even then, she wouldn’t tell me about the last one.”

  I nodded. I thought that was the proper human expression to show my continued interest. I didn’t even have to fake it very much. For the next few hours, Cami regaled me with visions she had of becoming a powerful wizard and showing her family just how strong she had become. I could easily relate to that desire.

  She explained that Modessa was eager to help her because one of her pursuits was the shadow—which was a pursuit that she and Modessa shared. Apparently, the other two that she was able to quickly learn about were those of wizardry and elemental fire.

  I was less than excited about elemental fire. I snorted and thought to myself, “Reds are fat and lazy.”

  Cami tilted her head to the side, lips pursed. Something about her expression struck me as wrong.

  I revised my previous thoughts out loud. “Elemental fire is… crude.”

  She arched an eyebrow at me.

  “Red dragons breathe fire,” I explained. “They are a greater type of dragon like blues and think they’re better than us. But lightning is much more elegant than fire, don’t you think?”

  There was a certain excitement in Cami’s eyes as she said, “Oh, definitely, but you should know that when I pressed Galbrecht, he told me that the elemental fire pursuit is also one which is common with magical smiths. It seems I may be able to learn how to craft special armors and weapons, perhaps even farm implements which would make life easier for the people of Cloverdale.”

  I was following her, and was even getting excited at the prospect of having a servant who could craft beautiful goods for my hoard. Then, she had to mention that thing about helping Cloverdale. That, I couldn’t truly understand, but I still nodded along.

  I was getting good at this human conversation thing, even if I said so myself.

  “And what about the fourth image?” I pressed.

  She bounced on her feet in excitement. “That’s the best one of all!”

  “Then why won’t you tell me what it means?” I growled. For some reason, Cami was dragging out telling me about what I was most interested in learning. I’d learned in the dragon dream that curiosity was dangerous for felines, but apparently it could trouble a dragon almost as badly.

  “I couldn’t get Galbrecht or Serius or even Modessa to tell me about it. Lisella avoided my questions, but I was eventually able to get Liam to speak of it. He doesn’t say much, but he told me that he felt it was my right to know what it was—even if I might never be able to do anything with that pursuit.”

  I nodded. My neck was going to get sore if I had to keep doing this. Human necks were poorly designed. For some reason, I found that I’d scooted to the edge of my bed—till I was almost hanging off of it.

  “He told me it would be unlikely that I could use it because it was mostly a lost pursuit. Apparently, though, the single wing represents dragon riders. Isn’t that amazing?”

  Chapter 21 - Travel

  I dropped her hand like it was suddenly poisonous and shot up so quickly I felt like I might hit my head against the ceiling. The room was none too big, after all.

  Cami’s expression fell, her smile becoming a look of fear. It wasn’t that I could suddenly figure out exactly what a flat squished human expression meant, as much as her emotions practically screamed through the connection we shared. She had been so joyful and full of hope one minute, only to suddenly feel like it had all come crashing down.

  Her lip trembled. “Did I say something wrong?”

  My indignation gave way to confusion. Was I really that obvious to her? Perhaps the way I’d stood up in my shock cued her in, but no… she’d just let me know something even more shocking than the idea that the university featured a pursuit for mages who treated dragons like horses.

  Her eyes were wide and the trembling from her lip seemed to be spreading over her entire body. “No, I can just feel how upset you are. I didn’t mean anything bad. I keep seeing this image in my head of horses. But I don’t think that’s what a dragon rider is like at all.”

  There was so much to unpack there. How could riding a dragon not be an insult to the dragon? I wanted to roar. I wanted to bite her head off. The only thing which tempered my rage was the memory of my ancestor allowing the orc Tra’vis to ride upon her back.

  The dragon dream didn’t share everything with those who saw the visions but that one had been the strongest I’d ever experienced and I’d felt nothing but contentment in my ancestor. For some disgusting reason, she enjoyed having the orc riding her. At least there hadn’t been a saddle or some of the other accoutrements of slavery like bridles and bits which were imposed upon horses.

  As shocking as that image was for me, what hit me harder was the sheer fact that Cami was apparently able to sense what I was feeling. It was so strong for her that she even saw some of the mental images which had popped into my head. That or she was simply very good at guessing—but she was only a human, so that defied logic even more than the idea that she could sense what I was feeling.

  The connection. That had to be what was going on. I had naturally assumed it was a one-way connection. It was my magic which had activated it, after all. Why would it ever occur to me that it might be a mutually shared experience? She was a soft, tiny human. I was a dragon, child of the powerful, heir of the world.

  “Can you feel what I’m feeling, too?” The words came out before I had time to think about whether or not I wanted confirmation of this suspicion.

  She stared at me. “Oh… is that what’s bothering you? I thought you were upset because I mentioned the idea of being a dragon rider.” Her face squished up even more and I got the sense she was thinking things through. I wanted to be mad at her but it was like having a pet which is objectively ugly but is adorable to you. There was something about her expression which made me want to ‘ooh and ahh’—and I didn’t even know what that was.

  I held up a hand to get her attention. “Let’s talk about this. I’ve been slowly gaining a sense of what you’re feeling, Cami—ever since my magic awakened. Are you saying that you feel the same?”

  She squealed. “Oh! Nico, this is awesome. I had no idea that you could feel a connection with me. I had thought that something about your magic imprinted onto me. This is so much better.”