15 Magic and Dragons

Destorianaxe opened a tired eye as Talian hopped up onto her slab bed. Her yellow eye watched his approach curiously, "I'm fine, its a scratch nothing more."

Talian shook his head, "I saw them when you came in, they nearly split your belly open on either side, its a miracle you haven't lost more than blood with all you've been doing. Just sit still, I'll see about treating you." Moving closer he stood by the black dragons side, passing a hand over the raw open split in her scales. As his hand moved, his voice raised in a lyrical chant in elvish, urging the healing magic into the deep wound. For a moment the gash began to shimmer but the the spell fizzled, while the bleeding had abated the raw open wound remained, any sudden movements would see a flow of more blood.

Destorianaxe lifted her head, her serpentine neck angling her gaze to the aching tear in her hide. "Guess I'll just to heal the old fashioned way."

Talian frown opening a pouch on his belt, walking up to the dragon he pulled what looked like a thick paste out and began rubbing the concoction into her raw open wound. Destorianaxe hissed in pain, her head tossed back as she gave a pained roar, "I thought you said you were going to heal my wounds not torture me!"

Talian clicked his tongue, ignoring the dragons growls, "Oh hush you over sized baby. Sure it stings, means you got dirt in there and was risking catching something. This will help clean it out and heal it faster, so put up with it."

Destorianaxe laid her head on the stone slab weakly growling under her breath, "I am still a dragon, elf. Don't force me to eat you."

Talian glanced at her pained visage making a greater show of gathering the painful paste into his hands before firmly slapping it against one of her other wounds. That draconic face reared back and bellowed startling poor Stares at Skies Vast nearly causing her to drop the griffins head from where she was trying to removed the excessive chunks of vertebrae... Destorianaxe glared at the elf who paid her grumbling little further mind. She, herself, discontinued the death threats after the next few which saw Talian repeat the result of slapping the aggravating substance on another wound. While the paste was becoming tolerable, she had to admit the elf had some strength, for it was the slaps against her torn flesh which were more painful.

Sighing Destorianaxe shifted, rolling over to allow her other wounds to be treated as she stretched out weakly. Hissing as the paste went to work on the more ragged wounds she turned her gaze back to her teacher, "What you tried before was magic right? Will I have to chant like you did? I didn't even understand what you were saying..."

Talian shook his head contemplating before answering, "It was an elvish spell, Cure Light Wounds. It's a weak spell good for minor cuts and injuries and safer than wasting a larger spell. Draconic magic resistance seems both a boon and bane. Though no, later on you will not chant in elvish to cast spells, though I suppose you might."

Talian lifted one of this thin eyebrows, "Indeed, you haven't noted it but we're speaking completely fine right now are we not? You're currently speaking elvish. Seems you have a gift for languages, an natural affinity such as it is."

Destorianaxe blinked her eyes widening in surprise, "How can I speak a language I've never learned?"

Talian reached over gently wiping up a but of blood from the edge of a wound, lifting his hand to show it to the dragon, "Ancestral memories. Dragons have a rather unique gift, what an ancestor knows is passed onto their future descendents. You only had to hear me speak it to awaken the memory."

Destorianaxe shook her head, "But I couldn't understand your spell..."

Talian chuckled stepping around so the dragon could more easily see him, sitting on the edge of the slab that served as her bed, "I'd be shocked if your ancestral memories worked that well. Words of power are unique, they are always spoken in the casters natural language, even if the being lacks a vocal language they will make some base sound unique to themselves. These words cannot be translated by the mind. A caster is forced to use the natural form of each word. Is why fringe dialects and users of loose word meanings make poor mages."

Talian leaned his chin on his fist in thought, "But to return to your original worry, no you will not speak in elvish unless you learn my peoples specific words of power. Much like your gift of languages, a dragons spellcasting is natural, its less one of your kind beseeching the world to lend you magic, more you tap your own source of magic and the world twists. Such is why its not advisable to teach a dragon at a young age this skill."

Leaning back he looked back at Destorianaxe, "There are four types of magic in this world. The hardest to get is Learned Magic, its magic humans developed. Basically they studied words of power and through trial and error... not to mention brutal catastrophic failures... came up with a way to harness magic. Sadly the energy is grossly wasted in this way, rather than use specific words the taught formula is enforced even if wastes ungodly amounts of energy."

Talian lifted a hand extending his two fingers, "The next sort is bloodline magic. Rather than wasteful formulas and badly translated words of power a sorcerer forces the magic in their blood to achieve results. Most races have bloodline magic, though draconic is highly preferred since its vastly stronger than human or elf bloodline magic. Also, do not confuse this with the taboo magic of Blood Magic, which as the name suggests turns the mage into a vulture, using the blood of others to power their spells. Its a dark path frowned upon by most sentient people."

Lifting a third finger Talian glanced to the roof of the cave, "Divine magic is the result of divine devotion. Healing spells are primarily where you need this. By praying to Estrelie, the goddess rewards my devotion with access to minor miracles. Healing spells are the primary focus of these though depending on the god or goddess you may be able to do more." Sighing Talian shook his head, "You dragons cheat here too. From what I've learned, dragon bloodline spells steal from both learned and devotion sources, even if you never believe in him, you might still be able to heal with magic."

"Lastly is innates. Other than humans every race has some spell like ability intrinsic to their nature. Take elves for example, we do not sleep thus we are completely immune to spells that would knock an individual out. Dragons, like yourself, have a rather thick protection. Spells have the chance to just fizzle when directed at you and then there's your breath weapon. We've studied the dead of your kind and we can say for certain the ability is not one produced by any organ in your body. It's simply magic that dragons can expel what they do."

Destorianaxe thought about how she had partially blinded her brother, "So I spew a liquid that burns?"

Talian cocked his head, "You've already used yours? Peculiar, most dragons don't develop their breath weapons until much later. Anyways yes, black dragons have the rather deadly ability to expel acid. The most typical however is fire, any dragon can breath such though old red dragons are the most proficient."

Destorianaxe cocked her head, "Red dragons?" While the concept of other dragons was well and deeply rooted in her mind, she could only think all dragons were like her and her family. Different perspectives and personalities but much alike as herself.

Talian sighed rolling his eyes, his new pupil truly knew so little. It was like he had been put in charge of an empty well bucket, it was his task to fill it with water, but he had thought the bucket was at least a little full needing only some topping up or refinement but instead it would seem it was truly, empty.

Coughing lightly he stretched, "There are multiple kinds of dragons that we've broken down into three families. Chromatic, Metallic, and Mutations. Keep in mind that these are major distinctions and does not include outlying members like drakes, wyvern, fae touched or aberrations. "

Looking at Destorianaxe he considered this next topic carefully, she was young and knew little, this was a perfect chance to mold her young mind on a proper oath, but on the flip side he would be lying about a key aspect of her nature. Looking into her questioning eyes, the elf sighed,vrevealing her nature was a risk but she was owed truth not a foundation built on lies. "Chromatics are considered by most kingdoms as evil dragons. They are fiercely territorial, often cruel and frankly quite sadistic. These include the fire breathing red dragons, the lightning breathing blues, the poison exhaling greens, the frosty whites and.... the acid spitting blacks."

A deep silence fell over the pair as Destorianaxe digested this revelation. Laying on the slab her eyes focused on the elf, rolling the words over in her mind. She was evil? Was she cruel and sadistic? What did those words even mean? A look of disbelief fell on Talian, while she couldn't deny her father, mother and brother were... less than stellar examples of her kind, did that mean they were the norm and she was truly the freak? This thought and memory truly shook her as she laid in silence. If her kind was truly like that did that mean she was as well?

Talian exhaled the breath he was holding, his first instinct had been protection, the chances an evil being exposed of their true nature resulting in violence was also a norm. Which Destorianaxe being silent and contemplative was rather a shock, he fully expected her to try threats or even to make good on her threats to try and eat him, yet she laid there quiet and thinking, her head only moving to look at him and ask a question that, quite frankly nearly did kill him from shock alone.

"Talian, what is evil?"