“Ah, hers was similar to yours, but even small differences can completely change the meaning of an image. She had a single wing as her image. That is rare enough, as in not having been recorded at the university in over a hundred years according to Serius. Two wings, though, we will have to check the archives but none of us have ever heard of it.”

  I nodded but decided not to push the issue—for now. I started to ask exactly what sort of resources she was willing to give me; specifically, if she would give me some gold coins. I knew I shouldn’t, but having seen those two coins which Liam handed the farmer—a fortune beyond the cost of what the cubs had eaten—had sparked a certain fever within me. Then, all of a sudden, Galbrecht started racing forward on his horse with Modessa racing after him.

  Liam stood up on the cart as he brought it to a stop and shouted, “There’s some type of giantkin ahead. Stay here and protect the students.” Then he, too, leapt onto the back of the horse which walked alongside the wagon and took off after the other two.

  Interlude 4 - Respect or Wealth?

  Cami was still upset with Nico. She had thought the revelation that she had a pursuit open to her which was related to dragons would please him. He was a prickly one—that much was always clear in his emotions. But, then again, he was the only dragon in a world full of humans. Once he explained a bit more about how he feared he’d be treated if he ever were discovered, she understood even more.

  There was something else that he wasn’t telling her, but she felt like they were becoming friends. He had never pushed her about the way her father treated her, so she wouldn’t ask him about his past. Perhaps, in time, he’d feel comfortable enough to let her know.

  The revelation that he felt her emotions the same as she felt his was eye opening. It changed things. She’d thought that when his magic affected her, that it had created a bond which allowed her to sense him. But the way this worked now made it seem more like they were equals. He certainly didn’t treat her like an equal, though. She wasn’t sure how to get through to him.

  Thus, it was easy for her to get excited when not one but two of the adventurers approached her about becoming her mentor. If they hadn’t been competing for her, she might have taken one of them up on the offer right away. Now, it seemed they were taking turns riding next to her and talking about what the advantages were of following their pursuit—and accepting them as her mentor.

  At the moment, it was Modessa’s turn. She nudged her horse up next to Cami but didn’t say anything at first.

  Eventually, Cami said, “I’ve been thinking about your offer, but haven’t made up my mind yet. Magus Serius makes some good points. Being a wizard is a broader study and will help me master all different types of magic. He also says that its very respected at the university, perhaps more so than any other pursuit.”

  “Bah, do you want respect or wealth? I can show you paths to riches that stodgy wizards won’t learn while sitting in their towers studying musty old tomes. Sure, Serius will take you adventuring, in a couple of decades once he feels like you’ve mastered what he’ll call”—and here she made air quotes with her hands—“the ‘basics of wizardry’. By that point I was the youngest adventurer to reach level twenty.”

  Cami frowned at that.

  Modessa held up her hand, “Maybe Lisella was a bit faster to twenty than I was, but I still think she’s lying about exactly when she hit it.”

  Cami held her laughter in. She was becoming more comfortable with these people. At first she had been in a paralyzing combination of fear and awe. They were so powerful after all. But familiarity helped. Well, that and having a dragon for her best friend—a cranky dragon, for that matter.

  Now, seeing this powerful rogue who could move like the wind fighting over such simple things as who was the first to an accomplishment actually did a lot to humanize her. It probably didn’t hurt that the woman was trying to convince Cami to allow her to be her mentor as well.

  “Either way, it’s a hard choice. I really want to learn as much magic as I can. I’ve dreamed about that.” Cami bit her lip. “You’re right, though, I’ve been trapped on the farm and was about to be handed off by my father to become the wife of a farmer almost twice my age, like I was some cow. I definitely don’t want to be trapped anywhere.”

  “Oh and you won’t have to worry about that at the academy. Nico is close to old enough that some might look at him, but unlike the distant countryside you will still be considered a child until you turn eighteen. You don’t have to worry about anyone trying to marry you, although, it’s hardly like teenagers don’t get into all kinds of trouble. This however, makes it even more important that you choose the proper mentor, one who won’t stifle you.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Simple, your mentor becomes your legal guardian until you turn eighteen and will make many of the same decisions for you that a parent would.”

  Cami’s eyes grew wide. “What if I just don’t take a mentor?”

  “Besides missing out on lots of opportunities? You would simply become a ward of the Emperor and the Archmage, head of the university, would have responsibility for you until you reach your majority. You’d end up living in dorms and not having nearly the kind of freedom that a good mentor can offer you.”

  “I don’t want someone I don’t know making decisions for me.”

  “Then you want me for your mentor. I’ll help you get the most fun out of life. I’ll find teachers for you so you can learn everything you need. I can probably even get Serius to teach you. I know what his weaknesses are.”

  Cami started to ask what exactly that meant but then stopped when a plume of smoke appeared in the distance down the road. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sir Galbrecht take off galloping on his horse.

  Modessa grabbed her arm. “I may not yet be your mentor, but I expect you to obey me. Stay here with Serius and Lisella. They can protect you. I need to help Galbrecht before he does something heroically stupid and gets himself killed.”

  Cami nodded, but the rogue wasn’t waiting for a response. As she rode off at full speed, Cami heard her muttering, “That man is gonna be the death of me yet.”

  ________________________

  Nan’sedoh woke from his slumber. He didn’t know why. He and his kind had gone into hiding deep within the earth long ago and for good reason. They had almost been hunted to extinction by the horror cursed dragons and their riders. Dragons were bad enough but as long as one avoided their domains they left his kind alone. It was their riders which were the true problem.

  Many of the elders had discussed a grand curse which would break the bonds, but such a magic was beyond a simple oni such as himself. Now though the cavern which he had slept in for an unknown number of years trembled. A disturbance had broken the seal the elders had placed over it, and he was awake once again. Not just him, but also the warriors and servants who had been sealed in here with him.

  Only the strongest of their kind had been saved by this magic. He had a full platoon of twenty ogre knights, four rending trolls, and six were-tiger rogues. It was more than enough to run over many small forces from the humans who had occupied this land prior to their slumber.

  Now that they were awake they needed to scout the land. The reports which came back to Nan’sedoh from the were-tigers was promising. The humans were gathered into a few towns, but there were no large cities within a day’s travel. The highway which ran through this part of the countryside was in disrepair, but still had travelers. It would be easy to set up as bandits.

  With that in mind, the oni had left the cavern. The sun overhead was hot, but his frost magic held it at bay. He brought half a dozen ogres, two were-tigers and a troll with him. That should be plenty. And sure enough it had been. They had raided several farms and a pair of small merchant caravans.

  He never tired of the humans’ cries when they appeared, or of the futile struggle their guards put up. His sleep must have been very long for the humans didn’t bother to have anyone strong traveling with them. The most powerful of the caravan guards had been level four, and it would take a couple dozen such guards to even have a chance at taking down one of his ogres.

  Ogre knights were something of a mockery of the paladins and other orders of the good gods. They supposed that their false humility and supposed honor, which was really nothing more than suffering the weak to live, were a good thing. Ogre knights were quite the opposite. They were imbued with dark powers from Mal’zek, the god of beasts. They were stronger than their kin, and possessed just enough intelligence to make them dangerous.

  Any who thought his ogres were dangerous, though, had seen nothing. Normal trolls were bad enough with their leathery hide and regeneration, but rending trolls had been specially designed by a wizard who’d thought to play with the natural order. Needless to say, he had experienced the power of his creations when they ripped him apart before escaping to breed in the wild.

  They were only marginally more intelligent than other trolls. Beyond their healing capabilities, they had an exoskeleton of bones as hard as iron which framed their body—culminating in long hardened claws capable of ripping into even enchanted armor or dragon scales, given the right circumstances.

  On the third day after their escape, Nan’sedoh was considering returning to bring out the rest of his forces. Together they would attack not just individual farms but one of the smaller cities to the south. His were-tigers had been able to mingle with the farmers in the area and learn that it was called Cloverdale and had over a thousand humans, but no meaningful defenses.

  The only thing that put him off was the report of a dragon which had eaten some cattle. Apparently, it had flown off and had not been seen again for the past few days. The oni decided to risk it. The chance to put a town to the torch and have all the food and prisoners he and his troops could long for was too good to pass up.

  He had been ready to head to this Cloverdale when one of his two spies reported that a caravan was headed to the south. It was the largest yet, with a dozen wagons and twice as many humans. The attack on Cloverdale could wait. He and his forces immediately set up an ambush. His ice easily froze the wheels of the wagons, sticking them in place, and then his forces attacked.

  Arrows from low level fighters meant nothing to his ogres and even less to the troll. Nan’sedoh didn’t even have to waste more mana taking them out as the were-tigers easily snuck into their midst and then eviscerated the archers one by one. Soon there was no resistance and he descended on the survivors.

  Unfortunately, one of the wagons caught on fire in the attack. The smoke that went up before he extinguished the fire was going to draw the attention of any human force for miles around. He wouldn’t be able to take his time enjoying the prisoners, or perhaps he could. He’d just have to take them to go.

  Chapter 23 - Rescue

  My first thought was to check on Cami. She might be angry with me over whatever little human thing was upsetting her, but I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I pushed my horse away from Lisella.

  The priestess called out, “Wait, Nico, you need to stay here where we can protect you.”

  I looked back. “I’m not some foolish knight racing off into unknown danger, but I want to be closer to Cami so I can protect her.”

  Serius had already circled around with his horse, coming back to us. “You needn’t worry. I’m a grand magus and quite capable of protecting my soon-to-be apprentice. Besides, what are you going to do to protect her? You aren’t even trained yet.”

  My eyes closed to little slits as I stared at him intently. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.” For just a moment, I considered attacking them. There might be no better time with the adventurers split. Lisella was so intent on riding right next to me that a surprise attack would almost certainly prove lethal. Then, I’d only have to deal with the mage. Of course, the speed of my transformation was so slow, that I needed to bide my time.

  Cami looked uncomfortable, hopefully because of the wizard’s words and not because I rode up to protect her. A second later she confirmed my suspicion as she said, “Magus Serius, respectfully, I haven’t made a decision about who I will select as a mentor.”

  The mage’s bony shoulders shrugged beneath his gray robe. “Hope springs eternal in the old.”

  I chuckled. Then I looked at Cami. I sensed our being at odds had affected her deeply, and that feeling echoed within me. I was being prideful. I knew it. Cami might only be a human, but she was a good servant and deserved better than this. This connection between us meant something even if I hadn’t figured out exactly what it was.

  I spoke softly so as not to be overheard while leaning in closer to her. “I’m sorry.”

  She pulled back with a look of surprise on her face. Hopefully, she didn’t need me to go into any more details. Just saying those two words had left a bitter taste in my mouth.

  She leaned forward and threw her arms around me. It was rather awkward, since we were both astride horses but she then whispered, “Me too.”

  Suddenly, the world was right again.

  You have learned the importance of unity with your bonded. You are stronger together; never let petty differences stand between you. You may not always agree, but you are partners in this.

  Acknowledging the importance of maintaining a good relationship with your bonded has increased your bond to level 3. From here on out, your bonded will gain 1% of your stat points in each stat (rounded to the nearest whole number, with a minimum of +1). The survival of your bonded is important.

  By strengthening the bond, you have gained 1 DKP.

  Hmm… partners? I wasn’t so sure about that. Perhaps the gods’ created system was in error. I’d never heard of any such thing in the dragon dream, but how could Cami and I be partners? That implied we were equals, and well…

  My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Lisella ask, “Well, are you going to scout out what’s happening?”

  For a moment I wondered if she was speaking to me. Had she somehow discerned I was a dragon and was now asking me to fly overhead? It would explain her fixation with trying to become my mentor. But then I felt a surge of magic from Serius. Between his hands an eye appeared floating in the air. I saw it was oval shaped and about the size of an avocado before it became transparent—so unless you knew what to look for, you could easily miss it.

  The wizard gestured towards the north and the eye streaked off at maybe three times the speed of a racing horse. It was difficult to gauge exactly. He turned to Cami and said, “That is the Arcane Eye spell. It’s Tier 3 magic, but you should be able to learn it quickly if you have a talented mentor. The lower levels are easy.”

  “What does it do?” she asked.

  The wizard was concentrating then and didn’t seem to hear her question so Lisella answered. “Don’t mind him, his attention is on the eye now. It allows him to see…”

  “And hear,” mumbled the distracted wizard.

  “Yes, and hear—if the caster is skilled enough—anything which is said around the eye. That way, he can scout out ahead of us without any danger. He likely has other ways to further enhance the base spell so that it can see into the ethereal plane, see invisible things, and perhaps detect traps or hidden spaces.”

  We all were looking at the wizard who suddenly looked concerned. “It’s a group of ogres and a troll. They were destroying a caravan.”

  Lisella gestured with her hand, as if to say that it was no big deal. “Ogres will be easy pickings for the others. Even a troll won’t stop them. How many are there?”

  “No,” the wizard muttered, “something is off about these. Hold on I’m casting Identification through the Arcane Eye.”

  As the wizard said that, I was suddenly very intrigued. Identification was a very useful Tier 1 spell. I paid close attention as he was casting it and felt more than saw how he made it work. It was almost too easy, then something clicked in my head.

  You may choose to add the spell Identification to your Tier 1 Innate Spells. Do you wish to do so? Note: You may only ever know six Tier 1 Innate Spells, and while it is possible to change them out later, it will cost you DKP to do so.

  Without hesitation, I triggered the ‘yes’ and felt the magic rush into me. I gasped as it felt like ice had just run down my throat and then spread through my veins.

  Both Cami and Lisella reached out to me.

  The priestess asked, “What’s wrong, Nico.”

  The sensation was strong but only lasted for a moment before it passed. I shook my head. “Oh, it was nothing. I just learned how to cast Identification.”

  The wizard’s eyes popped open then. “What? That’s impossible, boy. No one can learn how to cast a spell after only seeing it cast once. I don’t care what kind of prodigy you are. Learning magic is a rigorous, academic pursuit.”