Found

A Slight Crime

          Aeris was utterly stunned by the amount of information he had received and could barely process anything. He still was slightly mad at the paladin for wanting to kick the dragon while he was down, but now that he knew who it was, he realized why he had been so against granting him a peaceful death. Everything Aeris had heard was exciting, but it was a lot. He stared out the window and noticed that the forests gradually faded into plains that grew into fields of golden wheat waving in the wind. Soon, the fields also melted away to a village that connected to a large city.

            The carriage stopped once we reached a large building in the middle of town. Aeris soon learned that the building was their inn and they were stopping for the night. Still, he didn't trust these people. They had basically kidnapped and taken him to a strange town. I wanted to know where we were going and why. As they walked into the inn, he took the fairy girl to the side, because Aeris trusted her the most out of the four adventurers.

          "Is something wrong, my boy?" she inquired.

          "I was just wondering where we were going," Aeris quietly answered while unconsciously scanning the surroundings.

           "You don't have to be nervous, we are safe here and we are going to the capital in order to enroll you in the royal magic academy," she answered as she put her hand on his shoulder to comfort me, but the sudden contact caused him to jump. Then Aeris noticed a man trying to hide that he was looking at us. He looked very suspicious, with a large black cloak covering almost all of his features. Everything about him was obscured by his carefully applied apparel. He was remarkably good at glancing at them without looking obvious, but Aeris noticed that in all of his random glances around they seemed to be focused on the side of the room they were on and he was now intently staring at the menu beside them, but he saw that he was watching us in his peripheral vision.

            Immediately, he moved away from Asherah to assess whether he was interested in him or her. She looked at him confused at why he was suddenly walking away, but he just continued towards the stairway to the rooms. He stopped for a bit and saw his glances following him, so he walked upstairs into the room they had rented for all of them. Asherah saw him go, but realized what he was doing when she saw the very suspicious man get up and head towards the stairs. She quietly went to get the rest of the party to come and aid him if he needed it. His boots were very loud and Aeris could tell he was approaching.

          He glanced around for any weapon but ultimately decided that this was the perfect time to practice some magic to help him fight. Closing my eyes, he tried to reach deep into his soul and felt the overwhelming heat of his magic. It didn't feel harmful, yet he could tell it could cause damage. When Aeris touched the magic and tried to pull it forward he felt the warmth and energy of it, but he could also feel the destruction it would cause. Instead of pulling any large amount of what felt like an ocean of fire magic, he simply grabbed at what probably amounted to a droplet in an ocean. He knew the more he grabbed the harder it was to keep and to control. He could feel the single droplet of mana in my body invigorating my body and causing warmth to spread throughout me.

          Aeris focused the mana on my hands and willed my hands to catch fire. Suddenly the room lit up with a white glow and my hands became engulfed in a small, sputtering fire. He willed more mana into the fire in order to make it grow and as he did that the fire grew larger, enveloping everything from my fingers to my elbow. The fire was stronger too, he could tell that this would cause serious damage to any normal person who came too close to it. The fire was much, much hotter than the average dragon fire, but he could tell that it was still dragon fire. Normally dragon fire burns crimson or blue depending on the dragon, but his burned white, which he felt was connected to the old dragon king.

         Then someone knocked on the door, which drew Aeris out of my thoughts and back into real life. He stayed quiet and waited to see what would happen. Abruptly, the man outside the door began a magical incantation, and he got the good sense to step out of the way of the door. The magic blew the door of its hinges , and he could almost see the magic fly from the body of its user. Aeris reached forward and punched the man in his face. Aeris could hear him scream as the unexpected attack singed his skin and caused his cloak to set fire. He was thrown against a wall and swiftly got up and unclasped his cloak, letting it slide off his shoulders.

        "How did you use magic without an incantation?" He inquired, "I thought that humans can't do that."

        "I'm not completely human," Aeris responded as he expelled some mana from his hands in the form of fire. The fire was much hotter than Aeris thought it would be and it had burnt the man's body to a crisp, only leaving a pile of dust where the man once stood. At that exact moment, the party came up the stairs and stared at him in shock. They slowly walked back down the stairs, and he had a feeling that he could no longer trust them. Aeris swept into the room and grabbed a black cloak owned by the paladin. Quickly, he adorned the cloak and pulled the hood up. Then he jumped out a window in the back of the room.

         People had heard the commotion and were already gathering around the inn. Suddenly a scream erupted out of the hallway as smoke rose from the building. Aeris jumped out of the window and used the cover of the crowd to get away, hoping that the crowd would think that he was just trying to get away from a fire for now. He knew after the news got out I would be reported, but he hoped that he could get far away from here by then. He sprinted into the forest outside of town quietly and unseen by anyone as they were completely distracted by the fire in the inn.