Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 22: Consequences

"Everything in the balance, and she tries to use a basic control rune to expand the reach of the flames..." Callah's voice came to me like there were blankets pressed over my ears, and I struggled to open my eyes.

When I succeeded, I saw that I was on a plump couch in a medium-sized room. It was lined with bookshelves on three sides, and on the side without shelves was a purple curtain that looked strangely familiar. The room itself could've been an extension of Callah's office; it was decorated so similarly, with marble pedestals and all.

"What do you mean everything's in the balance?" I asked as her words finally registered.

She had been pacing the room but turned now to look at me. "You needn't worry about that now. You should worry about how you've just nearly killed yourself, not to mention nearly destroyed some of the most priceless books in the world."

"I don't know what happened. The fire... it just wouldn't listen anymore." I tried to sit up, but there was a sudden pain in my chest, and I fell back to the couch.

"Didn't you read the warnings in your book?" When I shook my head, she continued, "The basic rune is for managing small, precise flames only. Attempting to use the wrong spell drained so much of your mannas that you ran out and had to draw energy from your lifespark." She clenched her fingers in a fist, seeming to be even more upset about it than I was.

I'd heard about mannas but didn't know any specifics. With Callah like she was, I hesitated to ask. "What's mannas?" My mouth felt like there was something wrong with my teeth when I talked, like I had something stuck between them. Not wanting to seem rude, I refrained from picking at it.

Callah relaxed slightly at my question, but I still saw tension in her face. "Mannas is energy generated by those with elent blood that allows us to connect to the elements in our environments. It is somewhat like a cocoon of magic. Death elents, such as Sarafin, have the ability to sense this energy in others."

I stored that information away for later use, in case I ran into any not-so-friendly death elents.

She continued, "However, mannas isn't an inexhaustible resource, and after it is used, it must be regenerated after resting and eating. If you continue to try to reach for mannas when you have run out, you will drain energy from your lifespark.

"You are very lucky to have been chosen by such a strong dragon. If you hadn't been a rider, or had Leera not been such a high class, what you did would have killed you. Only your dragon's strength saved your lifespark from an early extinguishing. As it is, you have most likely cut twenty years off your natural lifespan."

I tried to sit up again and was forced back down by another bolt of pain. "Twenty years? A whole twenty years for a stupid bit of fire magic?"

"Calm down. Riders live much longer than un-bonded bipeds. You'll most likely still live to two hundred and fifty or so if you aren't killed in the war."

That was even more shocking—the prospect of outliving my younger sister by almost a hundred years. Then again, we could all die tomorrow if the Ferentisians were feeling ambitious and decided to launch a full-out attack. Neither option seemed especially pleasant.

"You should know one other thing before I leave you to finish recuperating." She moved to a nearby bookshelf and took a hand mirror off the top shelf. "Look at yourself." She turned the mirror to face me.

I didn't notice anything strange, so I opened my mouth to ask what I was supposed to be looking at. The sight of my teeth stopped me up short. I had four fangs, each nearly half an inch long. When I touched the point of one, it cut my finger. "What's wrong with me?"

She put the mirror back. "Fangs are a common physical mutation for your type of paltor."

So they were a paltor thing. I should have known. "And why exactly do I have them now?" I vainly tried to to keep my tone level, but my thoughts were buzzing. How the heck was I supposed to hide fangs from everyone I met?

"Magic is tricky, especially when paltors are concerned. When one first uses their less-dominant power, strange things can occur. My first try at water effessing, I turned the garden blue for a month. After the first time, there are almost never any other changes or unusual incidences."

"So the changes are temporary."

"In the case of physical ones, not usually."

Great. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Do you have an alabri on you?"

"Yeah, but it's not charged, and I can't exactly round up the other talmes to help me charge it with these in my mouth." I flicked one of my fangs.

"One of my talme colleagues has an autonomous charger. It works without need for a Tayna ceremony. I'll retrieve it. For now, rest and recover." She patted my shoulder before disappearing through the purple curtain.