UNMARKED

12: Connections

"Well done, Blumore." Nuala patted Blayre firmly on the back.

    A group of them sat around a long  table in the second story study. The glossy wood caught the warm glow of the dimmed mage-lights. Barely an inch of the wine-colored walls was visible under maps, and lined with book shelves in a room often used for discussions of trade.

    "She did spectacularly. Even though things did not go according to plan." Ainslee winked.

    "Yes, I quite enjoyed being able to just spend the evening gambling, while Blu over here did the leg work.  I won quite a few silvers." Fletcher put in.

    "And then lost them all and then some." Ainslee pointed out relentlessly. "And when do you ever do the leg work?"

    "At any rate." Nuala tapped her foot impatiently. She was the only one standing, her arms folded across her chest. Fletcher was rubbing his thumb into the table, working out smudges - or creating more, Blayre couldn't tell. Ainslee sat primly in her own chair across from Blayre, and Caval gave off his usual air of casual grace, tilted slightly to the side in his chair, one leg crossed over the other and his hands grasped around a knee.

    Blayre thought she would fall asleep on the table if they didn't wrap this up quickly.

    She produced the pouch they had obtained from the diviner - in the end they had paid Mortimer Letecha for a scale and a crystal to bring back and research. When she had poured them out onto the table, Nuala leaned over to get a better look. "Caval, could you...?"

    The lights in the room intensified. Blayre resisted the urge to groan. It was much too late for this.

    Nuala leaned closely over the iridescent scales which gave off fiery flickers of red, blue and purple. "Hmm, smaller than I expected. Weren't dragons supposed to be large? Shouldn't their scales have been bigger?"

    "Well, these could have been smaller scales from any of the extremities. Or, it's possible it was a younger dragon. However, it is thought that just prior towards the end of their existence as a species, they were greatly reduced in size, since just prior to their complete extinction, they were only found in captivity." Caval explained.

    "What are you, a history book?" Fletcher complained. Ainslee reached out and flicked him in the head.

    Caval only smiled. "The study of magical creatures is required of any mage. Mine just happens to be quite more extensive than the usual I would imagine."

    Nuala rolled her eyes at Fletcher's remark, but did nothing to rebuke him. Despite Fletcher's earlier misgivings about the mentor, Nuala did very little micromanaging of the triad, and her scolding was usually minimal. "Thank you Sorcerer Caval, your knowledge is quite useful, despite Seeker Fletcher's remarks. "Now, why turn these to crystals? Why not leave them in scale form?" She hooked her fingers into her belt loops.

    "Well, the scale can retain magic on it's own. But I would imagine that powdering it increases the surface area. The magic can then be attached to the powder, and turned into a crystal which will retain a higher concentration of magic than a scale alone." Caval rubbed his fingers together, as if there were a powder there.

    "And a scale isn't exactly the prime shape for inserting it into one of those magic-flingers - if that's what they're being used for." Blayre murmured softly.

    The silence in the room was palpable. They felt all too acutely the danger that this these objects could pose. The crystal that now lay on the table was not the same shape as the ones in Blayre's pocket. She pulled one out, the sunset crystal. It was slim and tapered at one end, while the crystal on the table beside the scale was wider and less cylindrical. It seemed that not everyone knew about the flingers. The ones from Mountainvale were certainly far more aerodynamic.