Lisella shook her head, then she looked at me. “This is a right mess that you’ve handed me. I had forgotten how often being a mentor feels like changing stinky diapers, and this is definitely the biggest mess any apprentice or protégé has ever dumped on me.”

  I shrugged. Looking away from Cami allowed some of my anger to fill me again. “I was about to solve the problem for good.”

  “How?” Lisella asked. “With murder?”

  “It isn’t murder to defend yourself. Even if I believe that you felt you had no choice in what you all did, it still doesn’t change the fact that you destroyed my home and enslaved my sister. Modessa has already done plenty worthy of death—and if I hadn’t acted when I did, she was about to kill me.”

  Modessa shuddered, her expression shifting to what I thought was confusion.

  Lisella held out her hands and said, “I understand if you can’t forgive us, but I beg you to at least try to understand why we did it. You’ve seen the horror and whatever that was that possessed the kraken. Ancient threats are rising, and we need every ally that we can find.”

  Then she shifted to look at Modessa, “Nico is telling the truth. Think about it for a minute, and you’ll realize what he means.”

  The rogue started to strain against the golden box she found herself in. “I’ve never taken a slave in my life. I’d kill anyone who did so, even if it was on the Emperor's order.”

  The two adventurers stared at one another. Then another voice spoke from behind everyone. “Give her a minute, despite her short fuse, she’s actually quite bright. She’ll figure it out. As for me, this now makes so much sense. I finally understand much of what has happened.”

  I spun around, as did Cami and Lisella, to find Serius standing in the wreckage that had been Cami’s cabin.

  Lisella started to say something, but he cut her off. “No, it’s okay. I assume it had something to do with your goddess. The only thing I don’t understand is how long she has been involved. Was it from the very beginning? Is that why I can’t detect his true nature, even now?”

  Modessa screamed before I could speak up. “For the goddess’ sake! Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Then, she disappeared in a puff of shadows and was suddenly standing behind Lisella with a drawn dagger.

  “Don’t do it princess. I really don’t want to hurt you.”

  Serius smirked and said, “Just look at his hands, girl.”

  To speed things along, I held up my hands, which were still covered in blue scales down to my elbows.

  Understanding seemed to dawn on Modessa. “You’re… no… that couldn’t be. My class abilities allow me to detect anyone who is disguised, even if it’s with magic.”

  Talking was the last thing I felt like doing. My blood was still pumping, and I wanted to slaughter them all—that, or fly away with Cami. It was only because of my bonded companion that I didn’t leap then and there to the attack. I was now confident that I could kill at least one of them. Maybe, with a bit of luck I could kill two or more before I died.

  Then something hit me. “Where are Galbrecht and Liam?”

  Serius looked at me before slowly answering. “I almost said they are hidden by my magic, but I guess if we want you to trust us, then I’ll have to extend some trust. Just know that despite whatever delusions of grandeur you might have, you can’t defeat the three of us—and even if you could, would your friend survive the battle?”

  I stood still and listened while preparing to break through the bottom of the ship. I’d come to the conclusion that falling into the ocean would be my best chance to gain the fifteen seconds I’d need to transform.

  The wizard continued, “The truth is that they are with the skiffs escorting the sailors off the ship. Given everything that has happened, I wasn’t willing to allow any civilians to be on the ship when we confronted you. Modessa apparently jumped the flag and didn’t wait for the rest of us.” He gave the rogue a glare.

  “I’ll admit I didn’t know what exactly was going on. Modessa has been trying to convince the rest of us that there is something off about you, Nico, but we have mostly turned a blind ear.”

  Lisella groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We did let her test him with those thugs in Taleian.”

  The wizard nodded, “Yes, not the best conceived of plans. I still can’t believe we agreed to put two students in that kind of danger. A lucky crossbow bolt could have ended the life of either of these very promising students, despite us watching over them. What confuses me, is that even thinking about what happened, I still didn’t put two and two together. Even now, looking at his scales, it feels like there is a weight on my mind pushing to keep me from pondering this.”

  I grinned. “That would be Miseria. She made a deal with me. I saved her precious paladin from the horror, and she kept my secret.”

  I was frankly surprised by the concern the wizard had shown for the sailors and others aboard the ship. My images of the adventurers were so jumbled. On the one hand, I had seen them attacking me and mine—but they also showed great concern for one another, and now for other humans who weren’t even part of their small collective.

  The question was which was greater—my curiosity to learn and grow, or my anger? In the end, Temulara’s words made up my mind for me. Understanding would come first and then I’d have my revenge.

  Modessa burst out laughing and pulled her dagger back from Lisella. She spun it with a flourish in her hand before it disappeared into what I had to assume was some type of spatial container.

  “That was a nasty trick with the sand. I’m gonna be tasting grit for days.” Then she looked at Serius. “You’re telling me that this is the dragon who got away? Talk about fish stories.”

  The wizard nodded while I laughed.

  Modessa turned towards Lisella. “It makes sense, now, in retrospect. You stopped hitting on him and got all awkward a little before the attack at sea. What’s the matter? Decided you weren’t woman enough for a dragon? Maybe that’s too much for even a princess.”

  The grin ran away from her face, and she said, “Seriously, though, that wasn’t cool keeping something like that from me.”

  Modessa stepped forward, towards me and Cami.

  I raised one of my claws but she said, “Chill, lover boy, I’m not gonna hurt your girlfriend, but she and I are going to need to have a heart-to-heart conversation about the trust between a mentor and their apprentice at some point.”

  Cami trembled against my arm, but I could tell it wasn’t fear. I was a bit lost. “Lover boy? That is a strange title. What does it mean?”

  Modessa rolled her eyes and groaned. “Oh, Cami, you picked a hard nut to crack. And I thought that I had it hard.”

  With a timing that was perfect, despite my not understanding it at the moment, Galbrecht opened the proper door to the storage room. He stuck his head in and said, “The ship is taking on a lot of water. You need to either stop it, or the ship is gonna sink.”

  I looked down and noticed we were standing in ankle deep water, but my mind had been too occupied up to this point.

  Serius said, “I have a spell to get rid of the water that’s in the ship, but not one to patch the holes.”

  Cami jumped up and down in excitement, “Nico can do that.”

  I locked eyes with the wizard before he said, “I suppose you have lots of questions, as do we all. I’ll agree to answer any of your questions if you’ll answer mine.”

  I bared my teeth. I’d been human long enough to know that it didn’t mean the same thing as it did for dragons, but during moments of stress like this, I reverted back to my old habits. “Within reason—that is—but we go first. It wasn’t I who burst into your home uninvited."

  Serius started to protest, but Liam’s voice came to us from up above. The man almost never spoke, but chose now to do so. “He’s got you there, Serius. Hardly fair otherwise.”

  “Fine, but we need to move quickly. What spell is this that will repair the ship?”

  I waved a finger in the air as I’d seen Modessa do on more than one occasion when she was being particularly annoying. It struck the right note for the attitude I wanted to project.

  “Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast. That’s a question, and we get to go first.”

  Then I bent over and picked up some of the wood from a shattered box and moved to the section where the leaks were. A quick investigation told me they were getting worse by the minute. I held the wood up to the holes and activated Fabricate.

  Error: You are trying to work on an item which exceeds the size limit for your Fabricate ability.

  I growled under my breath. I should have seen that coming. It would have been too perfect if I could completely restore the ship, perhaps even improve it. But, no… I was going to have to settle for crude patches.

  Oh well, it wasn’t like I cared about the ship. My mind was still racing about how to handle this situation. I activated the ability and instead focused on these holes alone. The pieces of wood formed perfectly fitted patches. Then, I used the ability on the pitch which coated the side of the ship’s hull and spread it to seal the wooden patch I held in place. I did this several times in a row until I managed to seal all the leaks.

  As I worked, I couldn’t help but hear Serius whispering to whoever was listening, “He isn’t using a spell. How is this possible?”

  That pleased me, until I got a new notification.

  You have gained the title: Making Do - You can’t always have nice and new. You have used your Fabricate ability to make repairs or to fix a valuable item enough to demonstrate you can be frugal. All repairs made with Fabricate will now cover double the normal area. This only applies to repairs and not the creation of new items.

  I growled at the stupid title. If there was one thing that no dragon wanted to be known for, it was being frugal. Oh, we might not like to share our wealth, but what was the point of holding it back from our own enjoyment—even if that was only the dream of creating a pile of gold large enough to swim in?

  I let that pleasant image wash over me as I heard Galbrecht asking Lisella, “What did Modessa mean when she said she thought she had it hard?”

  Interlude 8 - Never let him Go

  A few minutes ago…

  Cami kept looking for an opportunity to get away from Modessa, but the woman sat down next to her and put an arm over her shoulders. Her grip was amazingly strong. She didn’t know what she’d expected. Level 20 was the highest an adventurer could go, except for some figures from stories. But from what her mentor had taught her, those must have been people with legendary classes.

  None of that mattered. Cami could see where this was going. Modessa was looking for a reason to fight and Nico wasn’t going to back down. She knew he was strong, but would he be able to handle the seasoned adventurer? She didn’t want to find out.

  If she could just get Lisella, the older woman would know how to defuse the situation and calm her friend.

  The scariest part was that she felt so angry. Cami glanced over at Modessa. The rogue’s jet-black hair was pulled up as it usually was. She wasn’t wearing armor and so her neck was exposed. That caused Cami to have the oddest urge. She thought about how easy it would be to bite that exposed neck and kill her foe.

  No, Cami shook her head. That wasn’t her thought—that had to be some primal instinct from Nico. She’d just have to learn to control it. Now that Nico had agreed—if a bit reluctantly—to let her ride him, she was never going to let him go.

  In that, teen-age girls with a crush and dragons shared something in common. Both could be obsessive and neither was willing to release the object of their obsession—but Cami wasn’t thinking about it like that. To her, this all was perfectly natural and Nico was beautiful in both his human form and his dragon form.

  More than once she had caught herself wondering if he saw her the same way she saw him. No, she had to focus. This was serious.

  Just as she started to say that they needed to get Lisella to explain everything, both Nico and Modessa stood at the same instant. Modessa drew a dagger, but Nico crossed the gap between them in an instant. The ship itself rocked at his power, and Cami barely managed to get out of the way as they crashed through the wall.

  She gathered her thoughts quickly and was out the door, running to find Lisella. The priestess was the only hope she had of stopping this without losing either her mentor or her dragon. As she ran, she felt the urge and, before she knew it, the words escaped her lips. They might only have been a whisper, but she’d said it all the same. “Rip her throat out, Nico.”

  Back to present time…

  Cami was glad that they weren’t going to have to keep secrets any longer. She had never liked secrets. They served a purpose, they had to—she’d learned that growing up with two brothers and a father like she’d had. Secret hopes were especially dangerous.

  Now, though, it would all be out in the open, and her emotions stabilized. She didn’t like the violent thoughts she sometimes had and figured that must be Nico affecting her. She found herself humming as she watched Nico work on the repairs.

  Thus, she didn’t even hear Modessa until the other woman coughed from beside her. The rogue glanced at Nico and then back to Cami. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

  “This is somewhere,” Cami replied, arching her eyebrows.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Do I? Am I supposed to know what you meant when you said you wanted to be my mentor, and that you’d protect me and train me? Or was the person who tried to kill my best friend the real you that I should know?” Cami demanded.

  “Fine, you get that one for free. But are you going to let me explain?”

  Cami sighed before pinching the bridge of her nose. She nodded and then followed Modessa up to the deck. Once up on deck, Cami sucked in her breath.

  The coastline was not far away, less than a mile for sure. But that was not the source of her shock. No, it was the massive docks spread out along the coast.

  They went on for as far as she could see in either direction. She could make out various buildings which seemed like warehouses and such. Somehow, it was both larger than Taleian had been and yet… less.

  “Quite a sight the first time you see it,” Modessa murmured.

  “I know I didn’t have the best education, but none of the maps I ever saw showed a city in this location,” Cami said.

  Her mentor nodded. “That’s because this isn’t a city. It’s called many different names by different people, but no one truly lives here—at least not permanently. Oh, there are some who may stay for years, but it isn’t their home… it’s just their job.”

  Cami frowned, trying to wrap her brain around her mentor’s words.

  “It is called the Depot, the Hub, or just the Way Station. It is the greatest collection of warehouses in the entire empire. A dozen ships a day land here, and just as many merchant caravans.

  “They come from as far as the western frontier, like Forlay, where Lisella’s family comes from, as well as the inner sea, or the eastern kingdoms, like Segwin. Some say the City of the Dawn is a neutral city for all of the kingdoms, but it is directly under the rule of the emperor and a kingdom in its own right. No, the reason the Depot exists is because it is a meeting place for merchants and kings alike.”

  “Why not simply have the ships go through Nychan?” Cami asked.

  “That’s as simple as power itself. If any of the nations were to control the Depot, they would grow too strong. Thus, it is set along this stretch of land which touches the inner sea and lies halfway between Nychan and Sesstun. It also benefits from having a direct route to Urgoi Isle, where the university sits.”

  “They keep this place to stop merchants from favoring one nation over another, or any nation of the empire becoming too strong?” Cami summarized.

  “Not that it keeps them from trying.” Modessa snorted. “The empire isn’t perfect, but it keeps nations from fighting one another… mostly. There is enough for us to worry about with roving monsters, dwarves in the mountains, orc raiding parties, dungeons, and now apparently the rise of ancient evils.”

  The rogue stretched, cracking her neck. “No, like I said… the empire isn’t perfect and what it does isn’t always pretty, but it is necessary.”

  Realization dawned on Cami. “You didn’t bring me up here to show me the Depot. This is about Nico.”

  Modessa smiled. “You wouldn’t be an apprentice I wanted if you couldn’t figure that out. I do owe you an apology. He is not what I thought he was, but perhaps if I share a little bit of my background you’ll understand my fears.”