Even so, her head ended at the height of my shoulders, I could barely keep up with Lirithiel, who pulled me through the crowded streets to Fräylis's tower, which stood in the heart of the city centre. She seemed to plow through the crowd, as the people, seeing her uniform, hastily let us pass. When we met a few guards on patrol we became even faster. They had decided to help her escort me, as the guards had been trying for years, to make one persistent rumour come true. This was much to my displeasure, as on one hand, I'd preferred a less eye-catching method to get to the tower, and on the other it made me look like a criminal they just caught. At least I couldn't have gotten there any quicker, yet it felt like the only more noticeable method would have been by a marching band.
An hour later we came through the gates of Fräylis's tower, and the guards were left disappointed as she pulled me straight to an administration desk in the main hall and not into a guard office.
Grinning, Lirithiel slammed her hand on the counter and looked right into the frightened eyes of the person behind it. Even though I tried to look friendly, my imitation of a human smile didn't help him. Instead, it seemed, that the sight of my fangs made things worse for him.
"We need the formula for reassessments, this one should be interesting."
"Yes mam, I... I get the for... formula."
The poor human guy nearly fell from his chair as he tried to find the requested papers. He hastily took some papers out and put his finger to the bottom.
"Please write the par... participants na... name here and the pa... patrons name here, i... if there i... is one."
Lirithiel wrote both our names down.
"G... Good, now the result of the previous assessment."
She looked at me: "It was Hunting Shadow, right?"
I shook my head. "Hunting isn't even a category and I never told you my Mana's signature. But since you need to know, it is... was called Shadowed Soul, Hunter is just one of the professions they suggested."
There I saw it again, in the guy behind the desk's face, he forgot his fear for a moment and looked at me with those pitiful eyes. 'Shadowed Soul', is just a fancy name for the world telling a mage to screw him or herself, as someone or something has placed a shadow-like seal on the soul, preventing not only the use of magic but also the categorization of the sealed mana. Lirithiel just stared at me in disbelief. "How did you hide, that you are a Shadowed Soul? I even saw you cast spells when searching for clues or persons."
I looked at her a bit puzzled.
"You never saw me use any spells for tracking or investigation, my senses are just very keen. Remember the one time I did cast a spell to sober you up and actually fainted? There has been no other spell I used in years, and I still don't know how I didn't faint before finishing it."
"So that's why you passed out back then."
I never liked to talk about it, since it's been a rather sensitive issue for me, so before she could say something else about it, I simply pointed at the Formula.
"Could we keep going with the reassessment?"
When I saw her expression, it seemed as if my posture reflected exactly how I felt talking about my Mana.
"Yes, of course, we can continue." Her voice sounded a bit apologetic before turning back to the desk.
She wrote the last information onto the sheet of paper and handed it back to the man. He looked through it and pointed to a door on our left.
"Just go through that door. And please take her with you, even so she has to wait outside. I'm terribly sorry, but I always get nervous around Dracori."
Lirithiel followed me to the door with hanging shoulders.
"I don't even know why I still thought Dracori would be seen as normal here. At least for the inhabitants of this city, it should be. There are not many of us and never were, but my people finished building the central parts of this city hundreds of years ago, when the Great Wyrm still ruled, to show that we are a civilized species."
I looked at her with all the sympathy I could muster. I know all too well what it felt like, but my good mood caused by Ragnar's mark on my neck already had come back.
"Just remember that you are a good example. You are a respected dracorian guard captain in this city. It's just some idiots and cowards like him, that still don't get it. You know that the guards think differently about Dracori and that they like you... and also that I like spending time with you," She suddenly stepped forward, wrapped her arms around my belly, and hugged me. As her hug tightened, I felt the air being pushed out of my lungs and my spine to bend.
"Stop... please ... have... mercy."
She broke the hug and scratched her pointy ear with a guilty look while I gasped for air.
"Gods... you... you should know ... know that your strength is beyond what most can endure. Why are they calling your people dragon-elves? There is nothing elven like in your hugs." She punched me gently on the shoulder.
"Oh please, you've survived worse things than a firm hug."
Although still out of breath, I laughed ashamed while remembering several events, any of which might be what she referred to.
"I should go to the chamber before we start telling old stories."
I opened the door and stepped into the room. I barely heard her reply: "Oh please, they're not that old."
"How many times... urgh... before it gets better?"
I hung over a toilet in the tower's annexe that most people called the barfing pit. While no one remembers what's happened inside the assessment chambers, only a handful of people in any century didn't run to the outhouse to vomit after coming out of one. Lirithiel looked away while holding my backpack.
"You knew that Mana would manifest inside of your body. Just be thankful that it turned out to be harmless slime. You know that some suffer from light elemental effects."
"Yea, yea. But the second time it seems to be worse. I ju..." Another surge of the colourful substance left my body.
"Mrawwr?" Ragnar sat at my side and seemed to be more concerned than necessary. Since I still couldn't give an explanation, Lirithiel explained it to him.
"Don't worry. It's just a mana reflux. According to the official explanation, it happens when too much of the ambient mana enters the body at once. Normally it is pretty harmless unless an element fully manifests. This never happened to a dangerous degree in any assessment, but it can happen in the wild or old abandoned buildings."
"Maarr?"
"No, I don't know, why it also happens during the assessment. They keep the process a secret. Some people even claim that the participants' memories are erased." Heavily breathing I came back up to a sitting position and leaned at the doorframe.
"Those are rumours... because those who know... know about the process keep their mouths shut. But the question should be... why only I have the mana reflux? Ragnar should have been with me the whole time."
I felt a light kick against my butt and looked up to Lirithiel.
"I thought you would be glad that he is fine. But it seems like you are just a bastard."
I gave her a slightly confused look before realizing what I had said, but not that she teased me.
"Please don't take me that way. I just think it proves that this isn't just a simple mana reflux. Dragons are powerful beings, but mana reflux should affect them just like any other species." She started staring into the distance, apparently, I had made her think about it. I used the following silence to recover a bit more before standing up. Back on my paws, I looked down and saw, that some of my rainbow-coloured vomit got onto my leather armour. Even worse, my fur got partially wet, which meant it got into my armour.
"It just went so well for me", I mumbled with a sarcastic undertone and went out of the annexe.
"Good thing I can clean myself and my things nearby."
In a separate area, the tower provided several magic items high hanging over basins. These items created small waterfalls of cold fresh water, which I used to quench my thirst and clean myself.
After I finished cleaning, I saw that Ragnar had jumped onto another basin to seemingly take a shower. It took me a few seconds to realize that he didn't shower, he just had fun with the water. I watched him turn under the waterfall several times, trying to bite into it, and finally lay down, what looked like some kind of meditation exercise due to the waterfall.
"Hey, are you two okay? You're in there for a while now." I heard Lirithiel ask from the room's entrance.
"What? Ah, yeah, we're fine. Please come in, you have to see this."
As she entered, I immediately pointed to Ragnar, who briefly opened his eyes, interested to see who came. After that, he yawned and nestled his head back on his foreclaws, keeping it just out of the water. Even though he appeared to be asleep, we watched him for about five minutes, before Lirithiel wickedly whispered in my ear.
"They should have your results by now. Maybe it is time to get them since you're still under suspicion of forging the dragon mark."
Ragnar still heard her and jumped up. He probably wanted to warn her about doubting his Mark or something. But when he opened his mouth to look more menacing, the electric bolts between his teeth struck the water and gave him a mild shock that, while it would never be capable of hurting him, scared him nonetheless. Seemingly half a second later he already tried to hide in my arms with his whole body shaking. Ignoring my fur getting soaked, I petted his sodden dorsal mane and wet scales, while trying to comfort him with words.
"Hey sweetie, that was your own lightning. Everything's fine, it won't hurt you." After he had fully stopped shaking, I petted him for another minute before he left my arm and climbed back into the backpack on his own. Only when hearing a soft snore did I care about myself and the soaked fur on my left side.
"Well, so much for staying relatively dry... can we please wait till my pelt is dry again? You know I hate wearing clothing when my fur is wet, and I probably shouldn't go without wearing my armour."
She just put her hand on my belly and as I felt warmth, my fur suddenly started to steam for a few seconds, before she withdrew her hand from my now dry body. I sighed before putting my things back on and followed her back to the hall.
We used a side corridor closed to the public, which not only gave us a shortcut but also the opportunity to look into the main hall without being immediately spotted, as there the door had an observation slot close to it.
At the desk, which we wanted to return to, stood a man in lavish clothing. While clothing had never been part of my interests, I could still tell, that his coat alone must have cost more than a small house within the city's wall. He held some papers in his hands, waited for something while looking impatiently around, and scolded our desk guy, just because he had to wait.
I looked to Lirithiel. "Is it just me or does he look like trouble?"
She took a moment to study the man. "Could be a noble or a wealthy merchant. Both could be troublesome, but you're still with a guard captain, so he wouldn't get away with anything illegal anyway."
I chuckled, because it would not be the first noble, she'd arrest, nor the first one learning how little a title can be worth. But she couldn't find anything funny about it, at least for now. My dracori friend just grabbed the back of my armour's collar and pushed me to the door.
"Let's see what happens. Waiting brings nothing, as even the impatient ones can be rather persistent."
Fortunately, she let go of me as soon as we entered the hall. Being so busy complaining to the poor guy, the wealthy-looking man didn't even notice us until we reached the desk. I cleared my throat and tried to use my friendliest voice.
"Sir, would you please let this poor man go? He isn't responsible for the - at some times - slow process here, it is a problem with the system."
The man turned around and started to talk before he even looked at who had spoken to him.
"Who dares... a beast?" His face wore an expression of disgust that even I could interpret from several meters away. I shook my head and tried to look like a sad human.
"It's beast-race. It even is a definition by huma..."
"Yes yes, are you the beast with the dragon that came today?"
I couldn't even answer him. It didn't bother me that he didn't let me finish or that his voice sounded like I should be happy to hear him talk. My voice went silent because he knew about Ragnar. But how did he know? With my mind racing, I barely noticed that Lirithiel answered in my stead.
"You should introduce yourself before asking such things." Her voice relatively calm still showed a clear lingering threat. She never liked it, that humans called many races beasts, just because we don't look very humanlike.
But the human man didn't seem to notice the threat, or he thought himself to be untouchable.
"I didn't spoke to you, Dracori." He looked down on her while barely half a hand taller than her. It was beyond me, if one should call it being brave or plain stupid to do this in front of any Dracori, but especially in front of Lirithiel, who wore her uniform. He definitely should have stopped there, but he turned back to me and somehow managed to look down on me as well. Normally it would impress me, that he could look down on someone roughly a head taller than him, but now it just felt annoying.
"So, do you have the dragon? Beast."
"Whether or not has nothing to do with a stranger." I felt my tail beginning to thrash from side to side. He followed with an at that moment obvious response, but still nothing anyone should say.
"It's clear you got a dragon. Hand it over."
The people around us had gone silent and I felt the eyes on my pelt. Everyone in the hall waited to see what would happen, but I had lost my knowledge of the common trade language at his demand. It hasn't only been unbelievably rude, but in this city, it was highly illegal, as such a demand declared the dragon in question to be a mere thing.
"Are you deaf? Hand over the dragon. What could a beast offer him? As a noble, I can offer him more and are better suited to... ahh."
He raised his hand midsentence to touch my shoulder, but before he'd be able to reach me, Lirithiel grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. The first time he had said that it could be seen as a misunderstanding by a judge, the second time he said it, there were dozens of witnesses in the silent hall.
"Thank you for saying it twice, that makes the arrest easier." Her voice seemed almost happy while saying that.
"Don't you know who..."
"SILENCE!" The thunder-like word echoed through the silent hall. All heads turned to the source where an old man came through a door in the back, followed by a few guards. He seemed to be in his late sixties, walked towards us with a simple wooden cane in his right hand, and wore a bluish- grey robe, which looked a few hundred years older than him.
The group approached us at a leisurely pace, apparently ignoring, that Lirithiel still held the noble's arm tightly at his back. Keeping my ears on the guards, I risked a glance at the noble and saw that his face showed clear signs of pain. Even so, he managed to be a snooty noble and a prick in just a few sentences, I pitied him in this situation. Her rather powerful grip still lingered in my memory, since Lirithiel had used it on me when we trained together. After a quick tap on her shoulder, she loosened her grip, and the noble's face relaxed a little.
"Lirithiel, why are you here?" A warm voice came from right behind me. I turned in shock as the old man suddenly stood close to us.
"Damian... err... Sir Lachlan, I'm here to monitor this miar. He showed a mark at the customs. As there still is the slight chance of a forged mark, it seemed the right course of action."
The old man's face lightened up and he even laughed quietly. "Still finding reasons to keep him save yourself, I see."
My gaze shifted between Lirithiel and Sir Lachlan. What did he mean by saying that? And why did her face suddenly turn from bronze to a darker, coppery tone? She shook her head without letting the noble go and answered with a firm voice.
"It appears to be the kind of mark, the highest-ranking officer on the ground has to report personally. But its authenticity can only be confirmed here, so I waited for clarification."
The old man motioned for his guards. "We speak later about this, for now, release this fool. We heard all the evidence needed, so let them take him."
Even so, he still had that warm voice, it felt more like an order and Lirithiel followed this order without questioning. We watched in silence as the guards led the noble away. Only the old man Sir Lachlan hadn't watched the noble's arrest. When I looked back at him, he stood at the desk with his back to us and had just finished reading some documents with my name on them, or rather my alias as I realized at that moment.
"Interesting... very interesting..." He looked up and turned back to us. "Captain, I will hear your report in my office. And bring your suspect."
After that, Sir Lachlan simply put the documents under his arm and walked back to the door he had come through earlier. By the time he reached there and looked back, neither of us had moved. The whole situation gave me a vague bad feeling, causing me to silently wait for my friend's reaction. But beside me, Lirithiel struggled with a conflict between her discipline and an emotion I couldn't identify. Seeing how the old man even smiled at us, I quickly checked our surroundings and realized, that I couldn't find any other guard than her.
"Lirithiel, we should follow him, shouldn't we? "
She turned to me with a slightly worried look on her face. "Yes, we would have gone to his office anyway, but something feels wrong about him picking us up."
In a rather poor attempt to hide my worries, I shrugged my shoulders and stepped forward. No one spoke a word until we reached the old man's office. Only after we closed the office's door and everyone sat down, he spoke directly to me.
"Well, we have good news and potentially bad news, but that ultimately depends on your perspective."
My bad feeling got worse, they wanted Ragnar, I was sure of it. But how would I get out? My mind raced, trying to find a fast way out. Suddenly I felt Lirithiel's hand on my arm.
"Hey, calm down. He has yet to say, what this news is."
Her words were true, I hadn't heard what he wanted to say, and she wouldn't have planned to lead me here unless she thought it to be in my interest as I wouldn't plan anything that isn't in hers. I heard the old man speaking again, but this time he spoke to Lirithiel.
"Your friend is quite stressed. His record mentions him to be a calm person."
I looked at him in disbelief. Did someone consider me a calm person?
"Sir Lachlan..." I started before he interrupted me.
"Please call me Damian. Even the guards only call me Sir in public, as they officially are my subordinates."
Unsure I tried to lick my chest, but I still wore my leather armour and licked over the leather instead of my fur. I ignored the leather's unpleasant taste and spoke with an uncertain undertone.
"This record should also mention my time as an outside investigator, so I used to work for you. Also, it would feel weird when my Friend calls you Sir while I call you Damian."
Lirithiel giggled next to me.
"Just call the old geezer Damian." I flinched but she just continued. "You may have missed it, but I had called him Damian in the hall before correcting myself, as I'm still in uniform. As he mentioned, calling him Sir is just for the public image. But we are not in the public. Besides, we only do it for people from different cities, since most cities consider calling a superior by his first name as bad discipline."
When she called him an old geezer, Damian Lachlan's face didn't show much reaction.
'How could she be so disrespectful talking about him in his presence? And why did he seem fine with it?' I had just finished my thought when he reacted.
"I wished you called me different, but it's my own fault."
Since that hadn't made things clearer for me, I could do nothing but stare at his face. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "I do not understand what just happened, but more importantly, why are we here?" As I spoke, I gestured at myself and Lirithiel.
Damian looked at the documents he brought from the administration desk.
"One thing after the other. The first thing, we need to do is to finish your assessment, you're a special case so the guard must ask you some questions before finalizing. And since I already came down into the hall for that fool, I might do this myself too."
"Is this part of the good or the bad news?" I asked him.
"Like I said it depends on your perspective. You're still considered a Shadowed Soul, but the seal shows cracks, figuratively speaking."
I felt my mood dropping significantly lower, but I kept listening to him.
"At the same time, we confirmed that the visual part of the dragonmark is real. We found that the actual mark fully merged with your soul, which is the best possible proof."
My ears perked up in surprise since I didn't know about the mark having several parts. "Wait, the sign in my fur isn't the mark?"
Before he answered with his seemingly near-always friendly voice, Damian and Lirithiel looked at me like I was stupid.
"A magical mark is placed on the soul, else it wouldn't have any effect. Yet, until it's merged, the one on the skin, or fur in your case, is needed as a focus."
He looked back down on the document. "But let's go back to the topic, shall we?"
I simply nodded, even though he probably couldn't see it.
"The guaranteed good news is that thanks to the fully merged mark the seal on your soul will get weaker and break at some point, yet we don't know when. But this leads to two questions I must ask."
There was a glimmer in the corner of his eye, or at least I thought so, but before giving me any chance to make sure, he continued.
"How long do you have this dragon mark? And for how long did you hide the dragon?"
I stared at him in confusion. The questions weren't surprising themself, but I had focused too much on the glimmer.
"I found the mark ... this... this morning... and Ragnar... he has been with me since I woke up yesterday."
"I can attest that he did not have the mark three days ago," Lirithiel said before Damian could react and quickly added. "He came to the gate and gave us a tip to some dire wolves and wore nothing that covered his neck."
Damian stroked his beard. "So, a full merge in less than a day? And just a day for... you said Ragnar?"
I nodded. "Thank you. It just took Ragnar a day to decide on a bond." He began staring into space.
"That unusual... I only thought of it as a theory, but now..."
Ragnar moved in the backpack between my paws while Damian lost himself in thought. I looked down, saw the little dragon's head looking at me, sighed, and took him on my lap.
"It seems he wants to meet you, so, may I introduce? This is Ragnar, Ragnar this is Damian Lachlan." The dragon's appearance tore Damian out of his thoughts. He wanted to ask something but stopped at my gesture. Following a random Idea, I decided to tell them about the last one and a half days. "I think I should tell our short story first. It started when..."
Something made me nervous as I told my story, but I didn't know what caused this. They listened in silence as I told them as detailed as possible about my dream, that he appeared in my bed just the morning before, the strange book called "Raising a Dragon Beginners Guide" and how I found the dragon mark after breakfast. Ragnar seemingly wanted to help and struck a different pose for every part of my story. But slightly irritated by his behaviour, he caused me to pause several times.
"... Last I must say, I have absolutely no idea, why I decided to get a reassessment right after I finished cleaning."
Lirithiel looked sceptical from me to Damian and only turned back after he nodded. Seemingly, Ragnar found this to be as strange as me. His eyes darted between the two. "Mwraa?"
His questioning had just little of an effect, as he did make quite a cute sound but we weren't able to comprehend its meaning. When he repeated his sound, I looked at Lirithiel.
"Why did you wait for Damian's nod? I think he got confused as well."
Instead of Lirithiel, Damian gave the answer.
"Well, your story is rather... hard to believe... especially the dream part. But detecting lies is one of my magics specialties. Although most like to forget about it."
I looked at him and realized that Damian was a mage, an obvious detail I shouldn't have missed. This should also be the reason, why I didn't notice him coming so close to us in the hall.
Apparently, my body language showed my thoughts pretty clearly, even to them. The warm smile on Damian's face became amused and Lirithiel shook her head.
"Really, you didn't notice before? Five years ago, you pointed out to me, that in the tower only casters are in higher position."
Yep, I did tell her and still remembered the day. Back then it seemed strange to me, that she didn't know, but now I just felt ashamed. Again it seemed to be written all over my face and tail. And while Ragnar climbed on my shoulder, Lirithiel and Damian both began to laugh. When they both still chuckled, I felt Lirithiel's hand pat my back and Ragnar's head pressing into my cheek. After a short pause, Damian Lachlan looked at me.
"Please excuse us for laughing, miar are seldom as cute as you're right now. But back to your story. You mentioned this book, do you have it with you? I'd like to have a look if you allow me to."
Glad for the change in topic, but unsure of what I did with the book this morning, I nodded and pulled my backpack from the floor onto my lap. As the only place that came to my mind, I could have placed it somewhere under Ragnar's blankets, assuming I didn't leave it in my hut. While pulling out the first blanket, I decided to ask him something.
"I have a question. Before I told my story you mentioned that the mark is fully merged. Isn't this enough for a certification?"
Damian looked at me and made an uncertain gesture. "Technically yes, in fact, your bond already is certified. But there still is the bureaucracy and, even in a case like this, an official certification takes time. So, you should be careful, at least for the next two weeks, but probably a little longer."
Lirithiel cleared her throat audibly for attention. "Couldn't you help speed things up? In recognition of the years, he has worked for the Tower."
He looked at her like a boy hoping for chocolate to get something from her in return for his help. But a few days' difference didn't matter to me, and while she convinced him to speed things up by promising not to call him an old geezer for a few months, I turned my backpack inside out to look for the book. As it was nowhere to be seen, I turned towards Damian to apologize. "I'm sorry but I think the book isn't..."
I felt a weight in my left hand. That strange book I tried to find had appeared in my hand, but it looked different now. It still had a solid metal frame and ornaments, but they weren't as generic as before. A silvery-blue metal framed the book's edges. Where the various ornaments once were, now a single ornament presented Ragnar's profile, with a black metal forming his scales, the silvery-blue metal used for his teeth, and aquamarine for his hair. My breath hitched as I looked into the eye. It appeared to be a crystal, but it had an almost black surface with a flickering lightning in it that would normally be mistaken for a crack.
"How did you do this? I thought you still can't cast spells."
Lirithiel looked at me with a mixture of concern and wonder. All I could muster accumulated to a look no less puzzled than hers, as I struggled for words. "I... I have..." I sighed and handed the book to Damian, who could barely guide its fall to a place in front of him, causing a cracking sound from his wooden desk. Ignoring that his table got damaged, he started immediately to examine the book's cover. Lirithiel and I on the other hand couldn't ignore his damaged desk, well actually we just couldn't believe, that I held that book effortlessly in one hand. Before we managed to comment anything, Damian snapped us out of our thoughts.
"It's heavier and way more impressive than the one in your description. Are these star silver and the black iron from the deepest dwarven mines??"
Lirithiel and I looked both at him, unsure what he meant.
"Are these mithral and adamantium? The two metals second to none but each other?"
I raised both my hands in a defensive gesture. "All I know is that this is the book I got. But don't know why it suddenly appeared, why it looks so different, or why I know it's the otherwise same book."
For a few seconds, he looked me in the face doubtfully, then decided that whatever he doubted didn't matter and started to read at an incredible pace, turning a page every two seconds. After 40 pages, he started thinking out loud: "Fascinating... I didn't know... this can't be right, but what if..."
When his expression changed from curiosity to disbelief, I already knew what he found.
"That must be a joke, over half of these species do not exist. And what is a Pink Curled Firefluffer supposed to be, or all these other versions of this Fluffer subtype?"
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Does this mean, that this is a joke?"
"I wish, but you just sound like how I felt yesterday. But it is the only strange part I found on the first 500 pages. Or at least the only one I can remember."
"Well, I'll see..." he said and continued reading the book.
After he muttered again about the things he read, I looked around and when I looked through the window, I saw, that no building obscured the view. This meant, that at some point on the stairs, we were teleported to a way higher floor than I thought to be at. It also told me, that Damian held a higher position than the commander of the guard. I leaned over to Lirithiel.
"Ok, why do you, a guard captain, personally know a big shot like him? Don't tell me you became friends at some festival, you would have boasted about this long ago. And not knowing also don't work, you called him an old geezer."
"Remember this friend I told you about, the one you couldn't meet?"
My eyes widened and I looked to Damian and back at her.
"He is the Samaritan that got you off the streets and gave you your flat? The reason you became a guard?" I had to concentrate to keep my voice low.
"Yes, that old friend of mine. I probably owe him my life in more than one way."
I still could remember her story pretty well. She told me, that when she was a child in her forties, her parents became innocent victims in a gang war, and she tried to survive in the city for several months. Back then, through sheer luck, her Samaritan picked her up first instead of some gang members. As she tells it herself, she tried to steal from him and got caught. He felt sorry for her and tried to find her a new home, eventually giving her an apartment of her own while acting as her guardian. Otherwise, she might have become part of a gang or worse and would have most likely died in the last great street war twenty years ago. That year the guard took out most gangs in the city around Fräylis's tower.
As I thought about her story, something else came to my mind.
"Hey, how old is Damian? You told me, that an old man saved you in your forties, so he must be at least 150 years old."
We both winced as the old man answered.
"I will tell you later. Now that I somewhat sated my curiosity, shall we think about the next few days?"
It was already late afternoon when we left the tower. As a Dragon in a city founded by and named after the last Great Wyrm Fräylis, they spent a lot of time thinking of ways to protect Ragnar while I could only sit next to them. I had to block some suggestions to lock us away until we settled on an acceptable option. Now we just had to stay in the city, with Lirithiel as our bodyguard.
Officially Damian punished her for acting outside of her responsibility when arresting that noble and Lilith would be suspended for a few days. In addition, they told us to live at her place, mainly because I lived with her whenever I had to stay in the city. I even had my own room at her apartment. But none of that mattered to me while we walked through the streets. I felt awkward since Damian told me his actual age just before we said goodbye. After a few minutes, she looked at me.
"Hey, what is bothering you? Is it that you were so much younger than the two of us?"
"It's because It reminded me, that you are seventy-eight years older than me. Most people don't get to live this long, and I haven't thought about this since we celebrated your coming out of age five years ago." I shook my head. "Hell, I'm twenty-seven and already feel old for all the things I've seen in my life. And you lived about four times as long and you still seem younger than me." A reaction flickered in her eyes, but I didn't let her say it. "Yes, I get that this age is nothing to you, as your people are descended from dragons and elves. But now I've learned that Mr. Lachlan is approaching his 900th birthday as a human and he appears to be in his late sixties. HOW?"
We stood some seconds in silence before she answered "What do you mean how? Damian is not just a human, he is a high-ranking mage. For mages at the higher end of the mid-rank, it's already normal to extend their life by a lot, and high-ranking mages take it just a step further."
She looked at me, or rather at Ragnar, who used my shoulders as a lookout. His interest in the city had reached the point, where he refused to hide in my backpack any longer.
"It's not like you could complain anymore. Your life got tied with him and while it won't stop you from being killed, you will look like you're thirty by the time I'm a wrinkled old woman." My eyes darted between Ragnar on my shoulder and Lirithiel, unsure who I should look at. I finally decided to look at my dracorian friend, as she gently punched my arm.
"What are you so surprised about? You wanted a dragon years before we met and didn't know..."
"It started two years before we met", I interrupted her. "It's been a total of ten years and we even worked together for five of them."
"Ten years should be more than enough to learn, that a high-ranking dragonmark creates a connection between the life forces of a dragon and its partner. If you two manage to live a quiet life, you both might live tens of thousands of years."
"Well, I did know that a mark merges the mana and allows both parties to be aware of each other's general condition. But I did not know about the linked life force, or that it could extend the life of the marked person."
"So, you did some of your homework regarding your wish and its consequences." She slowly shook her head. "Yet you've missed important parts, although it's only the high-ranking marks, which link the life force. But besides prolonging the life and, just so you know, thus allowing you to see him becoming an adult, they also affect the personality. You won't change overnight or become a completely different person, but you might show some of Ragnar's quirks or ideals. As an example, the two of you could start to hoard things he likes together."
I thought about the day so far without noticing that she looked at me until she started to giggle.
"Seems like you're about to figure something out. Let's continue our way, we're close by so you can sit down while thinking."
To the people reading this Story: I’d like to read your thoughts about this and will be thankful for every comment. I am already aware that I have the following two problems because English is not my native language, but I wish to learn how to better myself:
A. That I’m aware that my English-skills are a mix of the British and American English. I just don’t know what word is from the American and which is from the British.
B. The use of punctuation, especially the use of quotation marks when switching back and forth between the narrator and the spoken word, is probably a bit unusual for native speakers, as I unfortunately only really know it in my native language and am not sure about the rules in English.
The first four chapters are finished and 3 to 4 will be published at the weekend, but I need to warn you that I’m a slow writer and this is a secondary project of mine, so it might take some time for every chapter after 4. (The fourth literally took me a year of writing and rewriting.)
Copyrights: The initial Idea for the story’s beginning came with this Pinterest-Post, where my first draft is to be found in its comments. The World and Story are by me. Another site to read the story: Wattpad
