Deal with a Gryphon

I liked Xipil the human even less than Xipil the gryphon. At least as a gryphon he had pretty fur and feathers, as a human he only had his personality. I supposed he was attractive in his own right, if you're into sly grins and dark eyes that stare into your soul. I wasn't much for swooning, though, so I felt uncomfortable as he leaned towards me, tilting his head in an inviting manner.

"Well, go on," he prompted. We had been sitting in silence for the past few minutes, ever since I arrived in the clearing. There had only been two chairs this time, and they were cushioned unlike the bare wooden ones my parents had been offered.

I smoothed the nonexistent creases in my skirt. My mom had insisted that I wear one of my nicest dresses. When I pointed out that not only was I going to be in a forest, but that the person I was visiting was actually an animal who probably had zero interest in hominid fashion, she countered: "Do not underestimate how long he has lived."

To which I wanted to say: "Do not underestimate how boring fashion is."

But she's my mom and I don't do the laundry, so what do I care?

"What do you want to know?" I finally asked. I had been running through scenarios in my head, driving myself into a tizzy trying to anticipate what he would ask and what I should tell. Could I trust him? Were my secrets so monumental that I had to worry about trust? Even Maxine had been uncertain. Although she had many objective facts about reinka and magic, she knew nothing about politics. Asking my parents would reveal that I knew about reinkas, and so I was stuck with my own Schrödinger's cat. Reinkas could be as common as sliced bread or as rare as pink elephants, but I would never know until I asked, at which point it would be too late to close that metaphorical box.

Honestly, it gave me a headache.

And, yes, I knew this headache might have been unnecessary. Maxine herself had explained that reinkas were given full magical knowledge, because there were supposed to be very few of them. The key phrase? Supposed to be.

So, Molly, ask the nonaffiliated gryphon! Problem solved.

Or is it? What if gryphons are part of an even larger network of politics? What if Maxine and I are dragged into a huge action drama, in which we are forced to sacrifice our lives to heal gryphons as they fight dragons? We'll be standing there on a battlefield, barely avoiding being trampled by humongous beasts, as Maxine and I use up the last of our powers. Our hair will be white, and our faces aged early from exhaustion. As I topple to my knees, Maxine falling besides me, I'll curse Xipil with my final dying breath…

"Your magic, how long does it last?"

I was abruptly pulled from my daydream, though the blood and feathered splattered battlefield lingered in the back of my mind.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"This isn't the first time you've used it, right? So how long does it take for the victim to regain their skill after you've stolen it?" His eyes narrowed. "You know that much about your spell, surely."

"Um…" His smile was turning sharp. "I don't know. This is only the second time I've used it, and the first time was… about five months ago?"

"So, it was my bad luck to be struck by amateur magic. Or my good luck." His face brightened and he leaned back, muttering to himself. "I have never heard of this particular magic before. Wait until they hear about this."

Ah, my daydream comes true.

"Whose they?"

"The other gryphons," he replied immediately, sending my imagination into overdrive. "We gryphons oversee magic. There hasn't been a new spell in hundreds of years. I will have to confirm whether you are the only recipient, and catalogue it."

"That's it?"

His gaze had wandered away from me during his musings, but now it swung back. An outline of a feather pattern had appeared around his eyes, stretching to his jawline.

"I will need to test the magic, outline the parameters, and submit a written documentation to be reviewed. At that point, you may be called to demonstrate."

"Absolutely not!" Maxine shouted, hitting the side of my neck. "You can't do that!"

"No, thank you," I politely declined.

His smile disappeared. "You don't have a choice."

"You can't make me." I declared, crossing my arms. "I don't want to."

He rested his arms on his knees as he examined my face.

"Molly," his voice slipped into what could only be described as a purr, the type that would be accompanied by a twitching cat's tail as it lay in wait. "What are you hiding?"

"Lots." Wait. I didn't mean to say that out loud. "Nothing." Maxine groaned. "I just don't want to use my magic too much."

"Why?"

"Because it'll run out…?"

"Molly," here comes the lion's smile to accompany the stalking tail. "Being a thief is bad enough, but I absolutely do not condone lying. Try again."

Crazy cat-bird was going to be the death of me. He was going to drag me off to his magic-obsessed buddies to make a show of me, they would probably kill me in the process, and I was going to end my second life at the hands of mythical bureaucrats. I wasn't strong enough to stop him.

"Let's make a deal!" I said, clapping my hands from the excitement of a sudden thought.

"A deal?" He seemed interested. "What is it?"

"I'll tell you what I know about my power as long as it doesn't hurt me, and you'll teach me magic."

"I'm not interested in hurting you, Molly." He looked genuinely hurt. "Before was an accident."

"Then the deal will be easy for you." I replied.

"Why should I make a deal with you? You are hardly in the position to negotiate, little thief."

"You don't want to be a bad guy, right?" He had spent a lot of time convincing my parents to trust him, even though he could have ordered them to submit. "If you exchange information with me, then you're being a nice guy, and not just taking advantage of a little kid."

He hummed, his eyes narrowing into slits. "I could teach you, but hominids usually learn from their parents."

I shook my head. "My mom has been trying. It's not working."

"Perhaps your human blood is getting in the way," he replied.

I gritted my teeth. "I'm not human."

"If you want to learn magic from me," he said, shrugging as he opened his hands helplessly, "you're going to have to trust me. You're half-human."

"…Fine. I need to learn human magic?" I'll shelve this argument for a later date. "Can you teach me?"

"Easy. I could teach magic to a worm. I'll teach you, and in exchange you give me the information I need to catalogue your magic. Deal?"

I covered my mouth with one hand as if in thought, and flicked the fingers next to my palm so that Maxine could see them.

"He might be your best option for learning magic," Maxine responded. "I know you want to learn healing magic as soon as you can, but it really would be bad for your body. Human magic won't do any harm. And…" she stroked my earlobe. "If you don't want to ask Mom and Dad about being human, then you won't be able to learn in town. Demons and elves can't learn human magic, after all." My other hand subtly joined in to form a more complicated statement. "Yes, you'll have to hide it. But maybe they'll tell you about everything soon, and then you can tell them?"

"Deal." I shook his hand.

"Excellent." He rubbed his hands together. "Now let me talk to your reinka."

My heart stopped. Maxine gasped.

"What?"

"Your reinka. Specialized spells such as yours come with a reinka. They'll look like a tiny hominid, and they will know more about the spell. It would be quicker to talk to your reinka than to experiment."

"What if I don't have a reinka?"

"Based on your reaction, I know that's not the case. I have been very patient, Molly, but we have made a deal."

I shook my head. "No, this wasn't part of the deal."

Swifter than I could follow, Xipil left his chair to kneel next to me, his talons cradling my chin.

"I will not hurt you nor your reinka. Unless you lie to me or renege on our deal." Forced to stare directly into his eyes, I could see a silver light pulsing in his black pupils. The human mimicry had disappeared, to be replaced by a large yellow iris. It was more disturbing than I could have guessed to be so close a human face that lacked the human whites of the eyes. I swallowed, but my mouth was dry.

"I can tell you what you want." I forced the words out, trying to ignore the cold talons brushing against my cheeks. "I don't want to involve my reinka."

"Why?"

Because she's my healing reinka, not my thief reinka! "Because she's mine."

"Molly," he smiled almost fondly, but he didn't move. "I won't take her away from you. In order to catalogue your magic, however, I will need to observe your reinka. Show me your reinka, and then we can start your magic lessons."

"Molly, what are we gong to do? If he sees me, he'll know!" Maxine was tugging on my hair as she panicked.

He looked to my left shoulder where she was sitting.

"Little reinka," he cooed. "Tell your ward to reveal you."

Maxine shivered, and I could feel the once upon a time familiar mother-bear rage surging.

[Poison Bite]

Xipil retreated so quickly it was almost like he had remembered how to fly.

His lips were turning a suspiciously beak-like yellow as he glared at me.

"Molly, what are you doing?"

The last two times I had used the spell, I had been too preoccupied to notice any changes. Now that I had time, I rubbed at my teeth carefully. My canines were thinner and longer, arching into my upper lip. I knew instinctively that if I wanted to bite, my jaw would open wider than humanly possible, ensuring that I wouldn't miss.

"You're not the only one who can be scary." I told him. It was difficult to talk with the protruding fangs, so I was worried that I would sound less confident than silly. "My reinka really doesn't have anything to do with this. I have a different spell, and that's what she's in charge of. But that spell is super common and boring, so you might as well not bother."

"You have two spells?" He had clearly forgotten his anger in his surprise. "That's unheard of."

"Congratulations. You've just heard of it. But you won't hear any more of anything if you threaten me again."

He sat back down. His eyes were still yellow – his human eyes had been a dirt brown.

"Is this the spell you used when I was carrying you?"

"Yes."

"Who did you steal it from?"

"An asper."

He froze. "How are you still alive?"

"I managed." I narrowed my eyes at him and smiled slightly, pulling my lips back over my fangs. "Don't tell my parents."

His expression was comical, stuck somewhere between shock, worry, and fear. I guess even eagles can be cautious of snakes. Or is it the cat in him? I think I had heard somewhere that eagles eat snakes. Between this world's asper and a gryphon, I wonder who would win?

Not Lamlan, at least. Poor guy.

Xipil tapped his chin thoughtfully with a talon.

"How do you steal a spell?" He finally asked.

"It has to be used against me. When I'm attacked, I'll steal it along with a bonus. So, this spell is Poison Bite, and I also got poison resistance. When I stole your flying, I got Aerial Drop, and I got—"

What was that dumb thing again?

{Spatial Manipulation Resistance}

Oh, right, thanks creepy voice that sounds like mine.

"—Spatial Manipulation Resistance."

"How do you prevent yourself from being hurt?"

"…I don't. If I'm not hurt, I don't get the spell."

"How do you survive?"

"Secret."

I bared my fangs at him when he started to stand.

"It has nothing to do with this spell. All you have to know that if not for my secret, you would have killed me. You owe me." He sat back down. "I won't lie and I'll tell you everything you want to know about the thief spell. Everything else is none of your business."

"I see now. This is why you don't want to demonstrate?"

"Yeah. It could kill me."

"And you don't have a reinka for it?"

"No."

"How did you use it?"

"Automatic."

"What does your reinka say about it?"

"She…" I exchanged a glance with Maxine. "She was able to figure out a little with magic, but she doesn't know much more about it."

At some point, his talons softened into human fingers and then back again. Instead of looking at me, he was observing the back-and-forth shift as though that transformation had the answer.

"Is there a possibility that there's a second reinka lying dormant?" He asked.

"Tell him to give me two minutes," Maxine told me.

"She says that she'll check. It will take two minutes."

Two minutes later.

"It's just you and me. There's no one else," she said as she ended the connection.

He was now alternating transformations, so that one hand would have talons and the other fingers at any time.

"She says that there isn't a second reinka."

"Fascinating!" He clapped his hands, and his talons scraped his fingers. "Ouch!" Shaking the injured hand, he sent me a sidelong glance. "Think you can help me with this, Molly?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't bring bandages," I replied blandly.

"No, you wouldn't have, would you?" He laughed. The talons disappeared and he snapped his fingers; a short bandage appeared and he wrapped it deftly around his wound. "I think I've learned enough for now. I'll just stick around until the next person tries to kill you."

"Hey!"

"I won't even have to do anything. You seem to enjoy getting into dangerous situations." Standing, he waved and both chairs disappeared. I couldn't move fast enough, and now my pretty dress had dirt on it.

"You told my parents that you would keep me safe, nanny-bird." I retorted.

"Nanny-bird?" He blinked. "You and your father are very similar. Both so impertinent. But then," he waved again, and the dirt that I had been ineffectually brushing at disappeared. "it would be dull if you were anything less. Are you going to cancel that spell, little thief? I think we have established that biting me will be unnecessary."

I nudged the edge of my right fang with my tongue, carefully avoiding the point.

"I don't know how," I admitted.

"Children," he sighed. "You know how to breathe, right? Permanent spells are like breathing. The reinka controls access to magic and to the spiritual energy, so all you have to do is think about it. Even though you don't have a reinka, it clearly still applies to you, so just think about canceling the spell."

'Cancel…?'

I furrowed my brow in confusion, and he sighed again.

"Think with more determination." He tapped his thigh with a palm, like an owner calling a dog to heel. "Come on, thief."

His attitude made me want to bite him, not cancel it.

[Cancel]

I realized that he had been more tense than he was letting on when I saw his shoulders sink in relief.

"Now that you're harmless again—" He picked me up, settling me on his hip as he pinched my cheek. "Time to get your first magic tool."

Before I could bite his fingers, the world fell like a rollercoaster, my heart took residence in my mouth, and the last thing I saw was his sideways half grin before everything was overwhelmed by a blinding silver light.