Storm Abilities:

  Eye of the Storm

  Storm Rush

  I Am the Storm

  Gear:

  Bracers of Natural Power (Armor +3, Dur: +5, +3 Unarmed dmg, +5 Agi, +25% of armor/senses, 3 stored attacks)

  Choker of Freedom (Armor +5, Magic Resistance, Scrying Protection)

  Belt of the Mountain (Str: +10, Dur: +40, Stone Skin 1/day, Weight of the Mountain 1/day)

  Interlude 1 - Changes

  Cami watched as Vox led Nico away. She was concerned for her dragon. It would have been impossible not to be, but part of loving a man—or in this case, a dragon—meant letting him be himself. She had to let Nico be a dragon.

  It might have been the only good piece of advice that her mother ever gave her.

  The woman had pulled her aside after one of her father’s tempers and told her, “Give up trying to understand men, that only leads to heartache. They might as well be a different species. But, if you watch and if you pay close attention, you’ll learn their patterns. They really aren’t that complicated—even if they seem to do the most illogical things at times. And if you’re really attentive, you should be able to figure out what they really need before they do.”

  In her case, the man—or rather, the dragon—that she loved, was quite literally a different species. It was somewhat painful to admit, but denying the fact didn’t help. She loved Nico and despite how he got her hopes up at times, she needed to be okay with and accept that he’d never love her the way that she loved him.

  She looked down at the ring on her finger. It shined like only gold could. That thought made her smile. Nico would be proud of her. It’s magic was helpful, to be sure, but the reason she treasured it was because he had given it to her—though he didn’t understand what a man giving a ring to a woman meant.

  “A copper for your thoughts, child?”

  The voice startled her. She spun around and realized that Lord Nagafen was standing behind her. She blushed immediately. How long had she been standing here at the door to their manor and staring the way Nico had gone?

  She blurted out, “What are you doing there?”

  He smiled rather than answering her.

  Suddenly, her words started spilling out at a million miles per hour. “Never mind that question. I’m so stupid sometimes… I know this is your home.” With a sigh, she stepped into the manor.

  There were servants inside waiting to serve, but each of them avoided any eye contact.

  “It is a small matter, child. I think I can guess a part of what you’re going through. I never met my wife’s father, but he did leave some journals behind and I’ve read them—several times.”

  He got a distant look in his eye, as he too stared out in the direction Vox had gone. “Loving one’s bonded partner is never easy. Dragons are not like humans, but I suspect it is harder with a chromatic dragon than a metallic, who at least had a human parent and grew up with some human emotions.”

  “Love…?” Cami squeaked. “Who said anything about love?”

  He grinned at her with such self-assurance that she wanted to smack it off his face. Then she realized that not only would that almost assuredly be stupid, but that he was probably a much higher level and had immeasurably more experience than she did.

  “Who said anything about love? Why, your face did, my dear. Perhaps that is better than calling you a child. For the reasons you were already told, Vox and I were never able to have children ourselves. We adopted a few, over the years, but it is a terrible thing to watch your children age and die. So after burying our third adopted daughter, we never were able to bring ourselves to accept the heartache that inevitably came with the joy of raising a child.”

  He looked down, an old pain clearly visible on his face. “No parent should have to bury their children,” he murmured.

  Cami didn’t think she was supposed to hear that.

  Lifting his head, a smile wiped away the melancholy she’d seen clicker across features. “Still, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to offer you some fatherly advice.”

  Now Cami’s head was truly spinning. “I’m not sure… I didn’t really get along with my da, so… well…”

  “That is of no matter. You are very young, even for a human. You are what, seventeen or eighteen?”

  “Almost seventeen…” Cami all but whispered.

  He smiled to encourage, but when she didn’t say anything further, he continued, “Shall I call you Camille? Or do you prefer Cami?”

  She paused for a second, lips pursed as she considered the question. “I like it when Nico calls me Cami, but I don’t care what others call me.”

  Nagafen nodded, as though that had been the answer he’d expected. “Well, Camille, you certainly don’t have to listen to me, but I’ve been bonded to a dragon for more than a thousand years. I’ve lived longer than almost any human—even other bonded humans. Dragons and their bonded riders tend to always be at the center of conflict, so there are few who lived as long as I have.

  “When I met my wife, she was already 500 hundred years old and scarred from a life of rejection. We met and fought together. From that humble beginning, mutual respect grew. I always thought she was lovely… in either of her forms, but it took her a while to gain an appreciation for me. Dragons experience the world differently than we do. With a dragon, you must be patient. Earn their respect.

  “If it works for you like it did for me, there will be a pattern. First, Vox started to think of me as useful—with knowledge and understanding she didn’t have. She saw me as akin to the best of minions. Then she started to treasure me as part of her hoard.”

  Cami remembered Nico saying something about his hoard when he’d modified that beautiful blue dress for her. It had made her feel appreciated… treasured, even. And she’d thought they both made a striking couple.

  He chuckled ruefully. “That was an awkward stage for me because, in many ways, she acted like she loved me… just as I might have expected from a human woman.”

  Cami’s heart skipped a beat. What she wouldn’t give to have Nico act like a young man in love… no, far better that she pay attention like her ma had said before getting her hopes up.

  “But don’t be deceived, it isn’t the same thing. A dragon loves their hoard, but it is a covetous love—not one upon which to build a good relationship. Next came respect, as Vox began to see me as independent of her. She acknowledged that I had strength.”

  The smile on Cami’s face matched Nagafen’s. “Dragons love gold, but they respect power,” she said.

  “Yes.” Nodding, Nagafen agreed. “Finally, it blossomed into love… but that required a change in both of us. I had to think more like a dragon to understand her needs, while Vox had to open herself up to more human emotion and understand what I needed. Our love had never been as affectionate as if I’d married some farmer’s daughter, but I wouldn’t trade what we have for anything.”

  Cami listened as they walked down the hall. When he stopped talking and she finally took in her surroundings, she realized that they were no longer in the residential part of the manor. Instead, they had stepped outside at the rear of the building and she saw a forge being worked by a blacksmith and what she assumed were his two apprentices.

  She looked at Nagafen and arched an eyebrow.

  He held his hands out and shrugged. “I used to smith quite a bit. Now, I find that it leaves these ancient bones sore.” He stared unseeing at the forge. “Many a late night was spent shaping weapons and armor—for the sake of venting both my frustration and expressing my love for Vox. I heard that you were also a smith, and thought that this might be a good place for you to sort out your thoughts.”

  Cami beamed at him. “Thank you.”

  Then, without looking back she headed for the forge. Judging from the grumpy expression on his face, the older man in the middle backing away from the anvil was the smith, and he’d just been waved away from his forge by Lord Nagafen.

  “You don’t have to leave,” Cami said. “I just need some room to work on my spear. It took a beating this last battle and I want to check the head and its edge.”

  The man’s arms were nearly as thick around as her waist. He eyed her with doubt, but then shook his head. “Ah… you must be the dragon rider we’ve heard about.”

  “You heard about that all the way out here?” Cami paused.

  “All within miles of the capital saw it and the surrounding area has likely heard several versions of what happened by now. It may only have been a few hours, but a battle in the sky between two dragons, each larger than any I’ve ever seen? Well, that’s not something we’ll forget soon, Milady.”

  The two apprentices were nodding behind him. The funny thing, Cami mused, was that once upon a time she would have been attracted to the younger of them. He had kind eyes, a broad chest, and strong looking arms. Kindness and strength was a catch.

  Now, though, she’d been bitten by the bug of love and no other could compare with her chosen—no matter how much the bite might doom her to frustration and unhappiness.

  “Just Cami is fine. I’m not a noble.”

  “As you wish… Cami.” He gestured to the smithy. “Consider my forge to be your forge.”

  When they stepped away, she moved over to one of the benches and summoned her spear. Given the shout or surprise from the younger apprentice, it seemed to appear out of thin air. But since it was soul-bonded to Cami, it was always with her.

  With a start, she realized that she could have kept it in Nico’s Soul Space. There was something that warmed inside her when thinking about something soul bonded to her being stored inside his soul. Blinking the thought away, she shook her head. She needed to focus.

  Nagafen’s words weighed on her. She needed to earn Nico’s respect—that was what she’d taken away from it. She’d already decided that Nico treated her like she was part of his hoard. If not, why would he have given her the ring or made the dress for her? That had to be where their relationship stood.

  She thought about the battles they had recently fought together. Cami had gained significant experience from their victories. Now, it was time to apply some of that XP. She needed to be stronger to earn Nico’s respect.

  Cami went through the motions of checking the blade on her spear, despite knowing that the magic in the item meant it was virtually impossible to lose even a bit of its razor-sharp edge. It was more of a motor reflex for her, given her crafting class.

  She directed her primary focus to her status sheet. After a moment of studying it, she quickly assigned her XP to the Dragon Knight class, pushing it up to level 13. After she did, the stats gained popped up.

  Strength: +3

  Agility: +3

  Durability: +6

  Mind: +6

  Free: +27

  As soon as she got the stats, she assigned all of her free stats to Mind. The battle against Iskaldurdauoi the dracolich had demonstrated that while strength and speed were important for her, in big battles it was going to be her spell casting ability with which she could best support Nico.

  The biggest boost from her level gains was access to Tier 6 and Tier 7 spells for her Dragon Knight class. Those spells would be impressive, from what she’d seen of magic. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean anything until she actually learned new spells.

  The next thing she looked at was her skills. She needed to practice some of her skills, especially Dragon Jousting. She had visions of riding Nico into battle and using her spear to rip into an enemy dragon or other aerial monster.

  She eyed her DKP. She’d gained a chunk from the battles they’d been in recently. She had 162 DKP available and needed to determine the best way to spend them.

  The options she considered were upgrades to Rapid Cast and Empower Spell.

  But a new option had appeared on her list.

  Spectral Tether – A connection between you and your bonded dragon exists beyond the mere physical. You may activate this ability and pull yourself back to your dragon from a range of up to 500 feet per ability level. The ability may be activated 1 time per day per ability level. The teleportation is instantaneous and will not leave you disoriented, thanks to your connection with your dragon.

  DKP Cost: 25 per level

  She decided to spend 100 DKP to push the ability up to level 4. In her head she was already envisioning different ways she could use it in combat.

  Then she spent 30 DKP to upgrade Rapid Cast to level 4 and another 20 DKP to upgrade Empower Spell to level 2. And just like that, she’d blown through almost all her DKP.

  She needed to remember that it was better to have a few good abilities that worked well with Nico than a longer list of abilities. That was especially true, as her spell lists were getting long—not that she wasn’t eagerly looking forward to learning new spells. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to wait to get back to the university to gain new ones.

  That left her with the spear in her hands. It had been buzzing in the back of her mind since she had plunged it into the white dragon. Something had happened to cause a change, and she needed to examine it to identify what had changed.

  Unnamed Soul Weapon

  Quality: Growth

  Weight: 16 lbs.

  Restriction: Soul bonded to Cami Westfork

  Elemental Adaptations

  Fire - XP: 0/100

  Lightning - XP: 0/100

  Plant - XP: 0/100

  Poison - XP: 0/100

  ??? -XP: 100/100

  ??? -XP: 100/100

  This spear is simple but filled with boundless potential—like its creator, who imparted a sliver of her soul to create it. As she grows, so too, will this spear.

  Your soul weapon is ready to grow to the next Tier. It has been exposed to the blood of an ancient dragon who was in the process of transforming into a dracolich. This ultra-rare blood has been absorbed by the spear and, due to your combination of classes, provides you with upgrade options.

  Cami stared at the spear. She could sense the two new elements included in the spear. She was pretty certain that one was ice, but the other didn’t quite feel like an element. It felt closer to poison, but was definitely not the same thing.

  Cami grinned. Now, she just had to put some work into it.

  Cami’s Stats 4.2

  Name: Camille Westfork

  Height: 5’5” Weight: 120 lbs.

  Race: Human- draconic bloodline

  Age: 16.8

  Class: Dragon Knight / Elemental Valkyrie

  Level: 13th / 10th

  Crafting Class: Soul Forger

  Level: 4th

  DKP: 12

  XP: 12,500 /50,000

  Base Speed: 9 mph

  Elemental Valkyrie Class Abilities:

  Vigil for the Dying 2

  Dragon Bond: Nicosandumas-Level: 20

  Benefits:

  Empathic Connection

  Bonded Telepathy (Rang: 100 miles)

  Bloodline: Claws and Wings

  Spell Share

  10% stats

  Elevate Spell 2 - Your bonded companion may use DKP to increase the Tier of a spell you are casting at a reduced cost (level 2).

  Polymorph 3

  Mentor: Modessa Lonerat

  Stats:

  STR: 187 (87 from Nico)

  AGI: 189 (26 from Nico)

  DUR: 213 (67 from Nico)

  MIND: 230 (45 from Nico)

  Unassigned: 0

  HP: 2130

  Regen Rate: 213 HP/day (889 with Nico)

  Armor Rating: 27

  Resistance: All Damage- 6

  ATK: 28

  DMG: 10-20 (non-lethal)

  Critical Strike: 8%

  Skills:

  Tough Hide 2

  Meditation 3

  Concentration: 2

  Rapid Cast 4

  Empower Spell 2

  Spell Swap

  True Rider

  Spear Mastery 4

  Shield Mastery 4

  Dagger Mastery 2

  Dragon Jousting 2

  Spectral Tether 4

  Mana: 2300 (2570)

  Mana Regeneration: 23 per minute (67 with Nico)

  DK Spells:

  Tier 1 (5/6)

  Offensive: Force Darts

  Offensive: Elemental Orb

  Defensive: Shadow Cloak

  Defensive: Tripping Vines

  Utility: Identify

  Tier 2 (6/6)

  Offensive: Burning Sphere

  Offensive: Venom of Silence

  Defensive: Shadow Haze

  Utility: Elemental Imbuement

  Utility: See Flaw

  Utility: Magic Disruption

  Tier 3 (5/6)

  Offensive: Call the Charge

  Offensive: Thunderclap

  Offensive: Fireball

  Utility: Shadow Clone

  Utility: Haste

  Tier 4: (3/6)