Then, for the next twenty minutes, Modessa spoke about her childhood and how her village was destroyed and her family killed by a wild mage with green, glowing eyes—how he had sucked the life out of her family, including her little sister, right before her eyes.

  Cami wept for Modessa. Her heart was not nearly hard enough not to be shaken by stories like this. Still, she couldn’t forget what the woman had been doing, only a short time ago.

  When the tale was done, Cami said, “I’m so sorry for what you experienced. How did you survive?”

  Cami wondered at the mixture of joy and bitterness which crossed the taller woman’s face. “That’s where the second great trial of my life began.”

  Now the teenager was intrigued. She arched her eyebrow, which was enough to prod Modessa to continue, “I was saved by an adventuring team. They lost two of their members and a third was seriously injured, but it was led by Serius. He saw potential in me because of how I had stood up to the wild mage. The big shocker, though, was that a relatively young paladin was in the party. He was only a couple of years out of the academy and it was he who picked me up and healed my wounds.”

  Cami smiled. “Galbrecht?”

  “Exactly. He seemed like an angel to me, and I’ve been smitten ever since…” Modessa stared off into the distance for a moment before slowly blinking her eyes. “But Brechie doesn’t seem to see me as anything more than a teammate.”

  “Wait, you said you were eight? You’ve been carrying a torch for him for twenty-two years?”

  Modessa nodded. “I’ve tried dating other guys, even had a few flings. It is especially common during your later years at the university. But nothing ever stuck. I always keep coming back to him.”

  “Why don’t you tell him how you feel?”

  Her mentor snorted. “You’ve met Galbrecht. He always does what he believes is right. I have to assume he sees something wrong in being with me.”

  Modessa shook her head and then continued. “But we didn’t come up here to talk about me. There are three things we have to talk about. And I’ll start with the simplest.”

  “First, I’m sorry. I failed you as a mentor up to this point. I can only promise that it won’t happen again. I should have learned more about you, but neither of us trusted the other enough for that to happen. I will offer you the opportunity to choose a new mentor. Serius would still be very happy to have you as his apprentice—even more so now.

  “I promise there will be no negative effects from breaking our agreement, since I am at fault—at least none for you. But if, by some chance, you do want to continue with me as your mentor, then you can’t keep secrets from me. We must trust each other.”

  Cami thought about it for a minute. She knew what Modessa meant. Now that her connection to a dragon was known, Serius would be even more anxious to become her mentor. She shook her head. She’d made her decision before, and she didn’t see a reason to change it.

  “I forgive you… although, I can’t speak for Nico in that regard. I want to keep you as my mentor, but if I do, there are two conditions. First, you have to respect Nico as much as you do me. Hurting him is the same as hurting me. We are bonded. Second, you have to do whatever you can to help me figure out how to evolve my class to Dragon Rider… my true class that is.”

  “True class?”

  “That’s one of my secrets,” the girl replied. “I have two classes and I’m not talking about elemental smith—although I still intend to learn what I can from Daggin.”

  Before Modessa could ask, Cami willed her full stat sheet to the woman, who gasped in turn.

  “It must have something to do with being properly bonded. This explains much about the discrepancy between what I’ve seen and the legends. Having a second class would empower you. Ahhh… I see, it’s a rare class, too. You put your XP into it—good girl.”

  Modessa tapped one finger against her chin. “Although you’ll still lose stats once we figure out how to evolve it to dragon rider, since that is supposedly an epic class.”

  “No, I won’t.” Then Cami shared the notification and details about her quest to learn about the history of dragon riders.

  Modessa nodded and grinned. “You’re going to be amazing. You’re sure about this, then? You want to keep me as your mentor?”

  Cami nodded.

  “Then, I pledge to treat you like my family, like Cymi. Even your names are similar, but you’ll be like my little sister. We’re going to have so much fun, and because your primary class has strong magical abilities, we can let you be both a mage and a rogue type. High Agility will likely serve you well as a dragon rider. But I’m getting ahead of myself.”

  The woman took a deep breath and blew it out before squaring her shoulders and refocusing on her young charge. “Now, we need to talk about the harder thing.”

  Cami swallowed. “What is that?”

  “First, I’m not asking you to keep this from Nico, but I’d like you to think about the proper time and way to tell him. He’ll likely have to see it for himself.”

  “Is it about his sister?”

  “No. Sadly, she is with the emperor now, and out of our reach. It will take a great deal of planning just to gain access to see her. Try to help Nico see reason and be patient.”

  Cami grinned. “Dragons live a very long time. Nico is young and I think he acts impetuously at times, but I also get the feeling that he can be very patient when he needs to be.”

  “Good, but that wasn’t what I have to tell you. Having met Nico, this doesn’t make me feel good, but we do have dragons and dragon riders at the university. In fact, every kingdom has at least a dozen of them. They just don’t live up to the legends of old.”

  Cami had felt a great deal of excitement with the first part of Modessa’s proclamation, but then she felt nervous with the rest. “How so?”

  “From what I can tell, Nico is intelligent—as intelligent as any human. He also seems to have powerful magic at his command. That is not the way it is with the dragons I’ve met. They are intelligent, but in the way that a particularly bright horse or dog might be.”

  Modessa twisted her lips into a grimace. “There are stories of a few of them speaking, but I’ve never met one which can. And the class that their riders get is named Pseudo-Dragon Rider. It’s only a rare class. A bond is forged between the dragon and rider with a magical artifact—not however it happened between you and Nico.”

  Cami felt tears in her eyes as she pondered the fate of those other dragons, having to live as so much less than they were meant to be. She also struggled to tamp down a rage which tried to rise up within her.

  She shook her head. If she was feeling this strongly about the injustice of it all, she could only imagine how Nico would react.

  “I can’t agree to keep it from him, but I will think about the best time to tell him.”

  “That’s all that I can ask. Oh, and for the record, you and I should probably talk to Lisella about this as well, but don’t bring it up to Galbrecht. That man would probably feel honor bound to tell the dragon about it.”

  After that, an awkwardness fell over the conversation. Finally, Cami said, “You said there were three things you wanted to talk to me about.”

  “Yeah, the hard conversation was my admission of my failures. The harder one was about how dragons are treated. There is still the hardest one to go.”

  When Modessa didn’t continue, Cami started to get nervous. “You’re scaring me.”

  “Good, I probably need to, for this to sink in.” She sighed. “I know you’re going to deny it—I was your age once, too. But that aside, you need to listen to me. You simply can’t be with Nico in the way you want to be. He may look like a human now, but he isn’t. Whatever you think you feel for him, it isn’t love.”

  “I’m sorry, Cami,” her mentor gave her a sad smile, “it can never be—even if that’s terribly confusing.”

  Cami wanted to argue, but for some reason her legs felt weak and it seemed like the deck had been pulled out from beneath her.

  Chapter 45 - Mystery Machine

  Because of the storm damage, it had taken longer than expected to get to our destination—which I learned was a large group of warehouses and docks ruled by a council of merchants with some oversight from a couple of companies of elite troops on loan from the emperor.

  I honestly didn’t care, though I was glad to see the sailors return to the ship now that it was deemed safe. At least most of them came back. A few refused after Serius had told them the ship had sprung some leaks when it was attacked from underneath. At least the man seemed capable of keeping a secret.

  What I really wanted, though, was to learn how to progress further. The battle with Modessa—as brief as it was—showed that I still had a long way to go. If I couldn’t even use Dragon Fear against a single human, I needed to increase its power. To me it didn’t matter that she was level twenty—that was an academic distinction. She was only a human.

  It took us a few hours to pack up our things, but eventually we were back on dry land again. I expected that they’d buy horses, and we’d begin the last stretch of the journey. Serius did get horses, but he only rented them for the day. Once he had all seven of us mounted up, he told us what he was thinking—but first he had us ride a dozen miles out into the hilly countryside north of the depot.

  The further we got off of the established road, the more I noticed signs of predators. There were some decent sized beasts to hunt here, not just little bunnies. But then Serius called for a stop and addressed us.

  “We have completely gotten this started off on the wrong foot. Nico and Cami, we are very serious about protecting you, as well as helping you reach your potential.”

  I snorted at that. Sure, they might help Cami, but what did they have to offer me? I was a dragon, greatest of mortal beings after all.

  I caught myself. That was the entire point of this. I needed to lean into the excitement which my curiosity lent to me. There was much here to gain, I just needed to keep an open mind.

  He continued, “With that, you need to know that all of us—but I, most especially—have an obligation to report your existence to the emperor. Perhaps I can justify delaying that notification if you’ll agree to some experiments.”

  My hands immediately changed to claws and I started running through spells in my head. I shouldn’t have trusted them. Humans only wanted to chop dragons up for our parts.

  When she saw my reaction, Lisella said, “Oh, no, Nico. Not experiments like that. He means that if we are finding out about your capabilities and how Cami can become a proper dragon rider, that would provide us with a legitimate reason for not disclosing your presence to the emperor. Liam and Modessa can say they were only following orders from Serius. The temple provides cover for me and Galbrecht, as we are obviously following our goddess’ agreement to keep your nature a secret. But Serius needs to have a reason.”

  I tilted my head, as I’d seen humans do sometimes when they were confused. “Wait, so you just want to see what I can do as a dragon?”

  “Yes, call it testing. I will be able to report to the emperor what your true potential is, in say… a couple of years. It will also give us time to figure out how to evolve Cami’s class and to help you grow stronger. I know you want to rescue your sister and if I had understood more about dragons, I would have at least objected to the plan put forth by the emperor’s advisers.”

  “I’m still confused about two things. You act like I’m not what you expected from a dragon. And do you know how to help Cami evolve her class, or not?”

  Galbrecht’s shoulders slumped, and he sighed. “You are not at all what I expected from a dragon. I’ve fought in battles with dragon riders and none of their dragons acted like you. They simply went where their riders told them to.”

  I growled at that. “What kind of dragon would allow itself to be controlled like that?” Not that my question was really for anyone to answer.

  Serius shrugged. “That is the great mystery. Those are the only dragons that we’re aware of. There are stories of ancient dragons out in the wild, but everyone gives them a wide berth—and there really aren’t all that many accounts of them. Yet, legend tells us that once upon a time, dragons and their riders were the most powerful group of heroes in the world. They supposedly made great sacrifices to drive some ancient enemy from this world. Now, there are signs of a powerful enemy returning.

  “What I’ve witnessed with my own eyes proves to me this is the case. That, and you’re clearly a magnet for these events.”

  I listened as he spoke.

  “As for helping Cami evolve her class, that is our goal. There are no longer any true dragon riders. We will have to unravel the mystery—what this ancient foe is, and what has happened to the dragons and their riders. Why are they so much weaker than the stories would suggest?”

  It seemed like the weight of the world weighed down the old wizard’s shoulders. “This is the task that the emperor gave to me—at least in part. I apologize for delivering your sister to The City of the Dawn, but pledge to do everything I can to see you reunited with her. I simply believe that if we work together, we will have a better chance of achieving our combined goals.”

  “You mistake my intentions in some way. Dragons do not feel some special familial connection… at least most of us don’t. I, myself, killed many of my clutch mates—it was kill or be killed. Rather, it is because it is an offense to dragonkind that a group of humans would take one of us captive.”

  I glared at each of the adventurers in turn. “I… I need a moment to think about this.”

  I walked away from them a bit to create the impression that I was thinking it over. I was definitely picking up some human habits. Really, I just wanted to speak to Cami without them suspecting anything.

  “What do you think?” I spoke to her mind.

  “I worry that this is going to be very hard for you, but I don’t see that we have much choice. We need to figure these things out,” she replied.

  “Yes, and we need to become stronger.” I paused for a moment before continuing, “I’ll agree to work with them, if you think it’s for the best.”

  “I do—for now. But I will let you know if I think something is wrong. We can only ever fully trust one another."

  I nodded, even though I noticed an odd, pained feeling through the connection at her last comment. It was a surge of longing and grief, but I had already realized that Cami was a much more emotional creature than I was. I wouldn’t hold that against her. She was the best of them, but still only human.

  I turned back to face the group. “Very well, we shall work with you to solve these mysteries. Only don’t think to treat me like some dog which you can pacify with simple snacks. I will be a full part of the team or not at all.”

  Serius answered, “Agreed. We shall keep your secret, protect the two of you, and help Cami learn how to evolve her class. In exchange, you agree not to kill any of us for as long as this agreement is in effect, and to participate in good faith with helping us to understand what a dragon is capable of. This agreement shall have no impact on your mentor agreements with Lisella and Modessa, respectively.”

  The way he spoke seemed odd. I sensed mana filling his words, and then I got a notification.

  Grand Magus Serius Graves wishes to invoke a system approved contract with you. Failure to honor your side of the contract will result in the loss of all your accrued DKP, whether spent or not. If any of the other parties to the contract violate it, they will lose all of their XP and revert back to level 1.

  Do you wish to accept?

  Wow, so this was what a system contract looked like. There were some real teeth in the terms—though, arguably, worse for them than for me. It was still not something I wanted to experience. I thought about his terms, but then realized there was something missing.

  “I will agree, but the terms must be modified to show that any loot which comes to our group as a result of this testing becomes my property. Since I’m the only dragon, that only seems fair.”

  Modessa snorted and Serius shook his head. “We are a party of seven in this venture. Shares should be divided equally, with the consideration that if a member is not present for a particular test, they are not entitled to a share.”

  I narrowed my gaze at him as I said, “No deal. Loot is a dragon’s birthright.”

  Serius sighed. “Most adventurers feel the same way. How about this… fifty percent to you and Cami to split as you see fit, and fifty percent to the five of us to split as we see fit?”

  “Sixty percent and we get first choice,” I growled.

  He countered again, “Fifty percent is my final offer—but if less than five of us are there, then we’ll split their shares with you. That’s more generous than you deserve.”