Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 19: First Lesson

I looked to Sarafin to ask him about what had just happened, but he was stroking his dragon's neck and murmuring to him.

We waited in silence for a few minutes, until the building's front doors opened and Callah began escorting the conference's members out. As soon as Sarafin saw her, he started walking away briskly with his dragon.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To the infirmary," he shouted back.

After all the conference members had left, Callah gestured for me to come inside with her. She led me down the small hallway past the entrance hall. We went through a door at the end, to a long, rectangular room lined with bookshelves and marble pedestals. There were stone slabs the size of textbooks on top of and around all the pedestals, which I thought was a bit odd. At the far end of the room was a desk on a raised platform. Behind it was a purple curtain that rustled slightly, even though there was no breeze that I could feel.

On the platform, there was a desk and a couple of chairs. We went over to it and sat down.

"Why did you want to meet me?" I asked.

"I knew your father when I was younger. A month before you were born, he wrote a letter to me asking that I take care of you if anything were to happen to him or your mother. However, his plans must have changed, because you ended up in the care of the Balugers, and I couldn't find you until recently." Her silver wings fluttered, and their twin eye-spots glowed blue. She was reading my mind, but I didn't know why. She knew a lot more about the situation than I did, like why my father would send a letter to her, of all people.

"He sent me the letter because I am like you, Ella. I am a paltor."

I pushed my chair back, acutely aware of how far I'd moved from the exit. Paltors had a violent reputation for a reason, at least according to my history professor. And according to everyone else I knew, for that matter.

"I am no more a monster than yourself."

I didn't know her well enough to be able to agree or disagree, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Very well, I suppose I will have to prove myself to you over time. You will see enough of me in our lessons to decide." Her wings stopped glowing.

I relaxed a little, but I was still ready to run if I had to. "What lessons?"

"I will teach you about being a paltor for however long you remain here." Her tone made me think I didn't have a choice in the matter.

I wasn't sure what I thought about that, but if she was really on my side, it meant I didn't have to be alone anymore. I could actually talk frankly with someone about how crazy this all was, and she would understand—because she'd gone through the same thing.

As I mulled this over, Callah went behind the curtain and came back with food.

She set a plate of breakfast foods between us. "Magin muffin?"

I took one of the purple muffins and started nibbling on it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now, our lessons will teach you how to use your fire magic better and how to deal with other aspects of your paltor heritage."

I was too uneasy to say anything, but the last thing I wanted to do to was to strengthen my fire magic. My powers were already out of control half the time.

"Do you have a wand?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Then I will supply you with one."

A wand would make it possible for me to focus my magic into more powerful enchantments, but it might make my magic even harder to control when I didn't want to use it.

"As soon as you are done eating, we will start our first lesson," Callah said.

I couldn't do it. It was one thing to accidentally make my clothes start smoking or for my hands to spark, but actually using a wand was a recipe for disaster. I didn't want to hurt anyone else.

"I don't need lessons. I'm fine at controlling fire."

"Then show me." She took a candle from her desk drawer and set it in front of my plate. "Light the candle."

"But I don't have a wand."

"You shouldn't need one to do something as simple as this."

"Really?" When she nodded, I hesitantly concentrated on the wick, willing it to burn. Nothing happened.

"As I thought. If you were in control of your powers, you wouldn't need powerful emotions to summon even the tiniest spark of fire."

"I just don't want to light the candle. I could if I wanted to." I knew it was a stupid lie as soon as the words escaped my mouth.

"Why do you claim to be in control of your powers when you most certainly are not?" She drummed her fingers on the desk.

I hesitated, not wanting to tell her. But if I couldn't tell a fellow paltor about my reservations, who could I tell? "I wish I wasn't a paltor."

"Yet you are one, and since you are, you will need to know how to control your powers. As you must know by now, a lack of control could lead to discovery, which would've led to your death today if you'd ended up in the wrong hands.

As I finished my muffin, I scoured my brain for a way to change the subject. "Wait, what are the chances of the paltor you were looking for getting chosen at the ceremony? And that guy in your meeting, he was a mind-jinker, he jinked... Leera." I swallowed. "Did he make Leera choose me?"

"That is neither here nor there. To begin our lesson, you will need a wand and a rune book." She took out a draw-string bag. It was the size of my hand and made of black velvet. She tried to give it to me, but when I wouldn't take it, she put it down on the desk. "Now, take out the guide and turn to the first basic rune."

Learning explicit knowledge about the magical practices of other species was forbidden by every law book I'd heard of. It was hard to prove someone was a paltor, but it wasn't hard to prove they'd been reading forbidden literature.