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As the Epheotan sun rose, I joined the many dragons who gathered to meditate around the fountain that gave Everburn its name. For the first couple of days, I had stared around at the dragons, entranced by their variety. Being in this city made me realize just how little of the asuran world I had seen. Now, though, with King's Gambit burning on the small of my back, I only paid attention to my surroundings with a partial branch of my awareness, and that was done more to ensure my safety than to gape at the asura.

Most of my conscious effort was put toward the fountain. Set within a circle of stones thirty feet wide was aether so thick that it pooled like water bubbled up from a deep well. According to the locals, the well actually punctured the boundaries of the world, letting the aether seep in from outside the boundaries of Epheotus; The aetheric realm. It was sacrilege to enter the Everburn Fountain, but that hadn't stopped me from seeing if the mythology was based on fact.

Out of the bubbling pseudo-liquid, thin jets of purple fire rose up like geysers. These would surge to over ten feet high, then fade until they were only a couple feet, then surge again. There was a complex pattern to the surges, coupled with a singular geyser in the center of the burning aetheric fountain that regularly gusted up to twenty feet or more above our heads. Each flare was accompanied by an outpouring of aether, and it was this effusion that the dragons gathered to meditate under.

The dragons couldn't absorb aether like I could, but they nonetheless used the intense buildup of atmospheric energy to meditate on their vivum, aevum, and spatium arts. The density at the Everburn Fountain made such practice far easier, just as it aided my own process of refilling my three-layer core after draining it to the point of backlash.

"Back again I see, human."

I glanced at the speaker, a pink-haired woman who, if she were human, would have looked to be middle-aged. Glossy scales slightly lighter in color than her fair skin surrounded her eyes and extended down her cheeks even in her humanoid form. I had seen her at the fountain every morning, but she had not spoken to me before.

I sank down onto my knees a few feet outside of the ring of stones before addressing her. "My own meditation should be done this morning, after which I won't trouble your city further." I left unsaid that I was only still there because Kezess hadn't seen fit to collect me yet. Myre had said only that I should rest and recuperate, and that when I was ready, her husband would meet with me.

My eyes closed, and I reached for the aether, drawing it into my core. The sensation of it brought rejuvenating energy and a bright wakefulness.

Calloused feet scuffed against the paving tiles, and a potent presence settled beside me. "Your absorption of the aether here has been the source of much consideration among us. There are those who see it as profane."

The primary branch of my thoughts was turned inward, focused on the absorption and purification of the aether. Still, even with just a few threads of King's Gambit, I was able to stay attentive to the asura well enough to hear the question in her words. "You want to understand what it is like for me."

"I would like that, yes," she said, a hint of a smile in her voice. "We cannot judge your actions if we don't understand them, and yours is a kind of magic that even the oldest among us have never seen before."

Something about her curiosity stood out to me. "Don't you fear angering your lord by asking such questions?"

"I have asked no questions," she responded. Cloth brushed over skin as she shrugged her shoulders. "We are merely talking, seeking middle ground. Share only what you wish."

I considered her words. Distracted, the primary branch of my focus turned toward her, and I opened my eyes to find her glistening silver gaze studying me carefully. "Who are you?"

Her eyes wrinkled at the corners with amusement. "For days now, you have taken your rest in my village, replenished your strength from my fountain, and yet you do not know me? I would be insulted, if I did not know that you had been insulated from this knowledge on purpose. Lady Indrath had her reasons, no doubt, but she also did not forbid me from speaking to you. My name is Preah of Clan Inthirah, and Everburn is my domain."

I bent into a slight bow. "Lady Inthirah. Forgive me, I didn't realize I was speaking to a noble."

She huffed slightly and turned to look at the fountain, the purple flames reflected on the surface of her silver eyes. "Perhaps once, when Clan Inthirah was as a sister to Clan Indrath, my forebears would have insisted on the recognition of noble peerage, but it has been long since any dragon not of the Indrath clan was considered nobility."

She spoke without bitterness. In fact, I sensed pride more than anything in the tilt of her chin and the inflection of her voice. "My role as Lady of Everburn requires not that I be noble, but that I speak on behalf of my people and ensure their continued wellbeing. At this moment, learning about your interaction with aether is how I am doing so. Now, you suggested that I want to understand what it is like for you to absorb our aether, and I have admitted that I would."

Her statement was left open, inviting me to pick up the conversation from before the distraction of her identity. "It's not much different from how it feels for you to use mana. Or, at least, how it feels for a human to use mana."

"But what about the aether's inherent purpose?" she asked, leaning slightly toward me. "Do you not feel the pull of the aether's intent?"

I considered, wondering how much, if anything, the dragon understood about the true nature of aether, as I had learned in the keystone. "Lady Myre has explained the dragons' experience with it at length. I don't experience it the same way."

"Strange," she said. Her fingers traced the gap between two paving stones, and her eyes lost focus as she looked into the middle distance. "And this, of course, is why Lord Indrath has been so invested in your world. He seeks true understanding of your abilities." She refocused on me, and her brows came together in a soft frown. "The oldest of our legends speak of dragons who could do what you describe. Not…absorb the aether, but to wield it as easily as mana."

"It was those asura who brought Epheotus here from my world," I said.

"Is something wrong?" Preah asked suddenly. She had leaned away and was looking at me as if I were a dangerous beast.

I realized I was scowling. I had been thinking of the events that had caused aether to pull back from the dragons, lessening their ability to wield it freely. I tried to smooth my features. "I…apologize. I'm still recovering from an ordeal. Sometimes…my mind wanders."

Preah cleared her throat and brushed a coil of pink hair out of her face. "Well…yes. Of course. I will leave you to your meditation. Perhaps we can speak again. When you're feeling better."

I only nodded my appreciation before turning back to the fountain. My eyes closed again, and I resumed focusing on absorbing aether. Distantly, I felt the Lady of Clan Inthirah move away.

Within the hour, my core was full. Something like a hangover lingered from the depth of the backlash, but I was certain that too would fade in time. Most pleasingly, the itch of my wounded core had not returned. The scar of Cecilia's attack was healed.

As I walked through the wide streets of Everburn toward the estate where we'd been staying the last few days, the eyes of every asura I passed followed me. I found myself studying their mana signatures, comparing one against another and then to Tessia, whose signature lingered on the edge of my perception.

The asura were powerful, of course, but most of them were far less so than Kezess or Aldir, or even Windsom. The dragons who had defended Dicathen—Vajrakor, Charon, and their soldiers—were also fairly strong in comparison to the average dragon going about their daily business in Everburn. These people are farmers, merchants, and maids. Once, I had assumed every asura was as powerful as Windsom, and although I now knew better, it was still interesting to see asura who were only slightly more powerful than a white core mage.

'It puts their plight into a different perspective, doesn't it?' Sylvie asked, her voice like a cool breeze in my mind. Woven into her thoughts was her focus on a conversation she was having with a handful of other dragons on the other side of Everburn.

Like the Alacryans, they are a people at the mercy of their lord, I answered, walking past a young dragon who appeared, by human standards, to be no more than twelve or thirteen years old. Her amber eyes jumped between me and the ground at her feet jerkily as she tried and failed not to stare. I raised my hand to wave, but she only hurried away.

'What do you make of Lady Inthirah?' 

Not sure, I admitted. She seems protective. Curious. Not particularly fond of your grandfather. Why?

'I was just wondering about that thing she said. That her clan had been like a "sister" to the Indraths. It's strange that Myre introduced me to other dragons here, but not to her.'

I puzzled over this with one lesser branch of my King's Gambit-fueled thoughts. Perhaps you should get to know Preah more.

My bond silently agreed.

A few minutes later, I found my mother sitting at a table in the small front yard of our borrowed estate. She set down a steaming mug and smiled at me. Although the expression was warm, worry hid within it like worms in an apple. "Arthur," she said, gesturing to the chair opposite the small table. "Will you sit with me?"

"Of course." I eased into the chair, which was made of woven blue grass tied to a metallic frame. "Is everything okay?"

Mom leaned her elbows on the table, rested her chin in her hands, and regarded me seriously. "No."

My pulse quickened, and I clenched my fists at my side. "Did something happen? Was it the dragons? Just tell me who—"

"You, Arthur," she said.

I gaped at her. "What?"

"Arthur. Art." She let out a shaky breath. "Tessia needs you, and you're doing everything you can to avoid her. It isn't proper. It's not fair."

I rubbed the back of my neck, rocking the chair onto its hind legs. "I'm not—"

Mom's brows rose.

"I…don't know how to be around her," I admitted, not able to meet my mother's eye. "I don't know what to say."

She reached across the table and held her hands palms up. I rested my own atop hers, and she squeezed my fingers. "That girl has gone through something indescribable. Her body—her magic—was taken away from her. She became a prisoner in her own flesh. And when she finally got it back, her core was gone. She almost died."

"I saved her," I pointed out softly.

Mom clicked her tongue. "But in doing so, her body has gone through a change. She doesn't know how to use her new core, and she is stranded in a strange place where no one except you could even hope to understand or help, and you've spent days trying to be anywhere except where she is." She sighed, gave my hands one last squeeze, and leaned back in her chair. Only after taking a sip from her mug did she continue. "You're the strongest person I've ever known, Arthur. You can handle a little awkwardness."

Heat rose in my face and I felt my cheeks redden. She was right, of course. I'd been acting like a child.

'Even walking cataclysms need advice from their mommy every once in a while,' Regis put in. 

Despite my several congruent threads of thought all balancing different topics, I had been careful to keep all of them away from my connection with Regis. He had been left to watch over Tessia, and I hadn't wanted to see her struggle through his eyes.

Standing, I moved around the table and leaned down to rest my forehead against my mother's. "Thank you," I breathed.

"What are mothers for?" she asked, feigning exasperation but unable to hide her smile. "I can't tell you what will happen in the long run, Arthur. Maybe you and Tessia really have been through too much to ever be…together, romantically." I pulled away, wincing at my mother's awkwardness. She swatted my arm playfully. "But she is your oldest friend in this world, and she needs you." Her smile sharpened into something mischievous. "Your presence, your guidance. Not your rippling thews."

"Mom," I groaned, hurrying toward the door. "I take back my thanks."

"No you don't!" she barked, mockingly scolding.

Pushing aside the curtain, I marched into the estate only to stop immediately, still grappling with my mother's teasing and caught off guard when I found myself almost nose to nose with Tessia.

"I thought we heard you out there," Ellie said, swooping by me and holding aside the still swaying curtain. "We were going to go get something to eat before doing some training this afternoon. You should come with us!"

Regis trotted past us and out the door, his tail wagging. "I know we don't need to eat, princess, but I, at least, really, really like to!"

Tessia reluctantly looked away from me to Regis. "Princess?"

I shook my head. "Don't ask."

"Oh, okay," she said, her face falling. "Um, you don't have to come with us, I know you're busy…"

"Actually, I was, uh…" I trailed off, my mind blank. I realized that I had forgotten to continue channeling King's Gambit. Without it, my thoughts felt sluggish and unsubstantial. I gave myself a little shake, all too aware of Ellie's eyes on my back. "My intent—rather, I mean, I was hoping that we could…work together. On your core. Helping you get the hang of it, I mean."

"Oh!" Tessia's eyes widened, and she took a small step back. "Of course. I'm not terribly hungry, I can train now."

"You just said you were starving," Ellie said. I glanced back at her, and she glared fiercely at me. "Arthur Leywin. Don't you dare force her to train without lunch."

"I'll just grab something here really quick," Tessia said, already turning and jogging to the kitchen. "Go ahead, Ellie!"

"Oh, fine, I'll just go get lunch by myself then," Ellie grumbled quietly, throwing her hands up and letting the curtain fall back across the entrance.

"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" I heard Regis say from outside as he followed my sister. "Does no one want to spend time with me?"

Their back and forth was lost to me as the hammering of my pulse strengthened to a drumbeat in my ears. I followed Tessia to the kitchen and pretended not to watch as she quickly scarfed down a couple pieces of bread slathered with butter and honey. Her back was to me, and I didn't think she'd noticed my presence. When she started to turn around, I ducked back out of the kitchen and waited.

When she came around the corner, I couldn't help but chuckle. 

She froze, her hands halfway to her hair as she made to pull it back into a tail. "What?"

Stepping forward, I brushed crumbs from the corner of her mouth. "Not very princess-like of you to make such a mess eating."

One of her sharp brows raised slightly as she withdrew a handkerchief and dabbed it at the corners of her mouth. "I shall have to be more careful, since I'm no longer the only princess around."

I let out a surprise laugh, and the tension melted away.

"So, what did you have in mind?" Her brow rose even higher. "Unless this talk of training was just a ruse to get me alone in this house…"

I choked on my laugh, and for a moment I thought the weight of the tension flooding back in might crush me. Remembering what Mom had said, I did my best to shrug it off. I only need to be present. "Well, I thought, seeing as how you're a white core now, you should learn how to fly. It's a natural extension of your power, provided by the expansion of your mana reservoir and increased attunement to the…movement of mana…" A chagrined smile spread across my face as I rubbed the back of my neck. "Sorry. You probably don't need a lecture on why you can fly now, considering."

I couldn't read the expression on Tessia's face. Her eyes flicked to my hands as if she was considering taking one, but after a moment she walked past me, headed for the door. "I understand how the Lances fly, and I understand how Cecilia flew, but perhaps this theoretical knowledge will help me understand how I can fly."

Wishing suddenly that I could reverse time as I'd done in the keystone, I followed her more slowly out into the sunshine. Mom, Ellie, and Regis were already gone.

"There is a quiet garden just down that street over there," Tessia said without looking back. 

We walked in silence, passing a sprawling three-story estate that was almost entirely open to the elements, a smaller cottage with a pond out front full of glittering, golden fish, and the bare bones of a home that appeared to have been torn down and was currently being rebuilt—well, more like regrown—by two dragons. Their movements conjured white stone up from the ground like the ribs of some great beast.

Tessia paused to watch them work for a few seconds. "It's like…poetry in magic."

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive."

She looked at me again with that unreadable expression, then continued on. We slipped through a gap in a tall hedge to our right and found ourselves in a walled garden. Dozens of different kinds of flowers grew, all of them alien to me. A few moved, the face of their petals following us like a sunflower turning toward the warmth of the sun. Several scents, both sweet and bitter, layered over one another.

"Do you know what any of these are?" I asked, just wanting to say something.

"No, but they are beautiful," she said matter-of-factly. "I had hoped someone might come along and volunteer to educate me on Epheotan flora, but so far the dragons have shied away from me."

I thought back to my conversation earlier that morning with the lady of the city. "I expect that's Myre's doing. Or Kezess's, more accurately. I'm not sure why we're still here. Either he's letting us stew, or he wants us to take away something from our time here. Otherwise we'd be at his castle somewhere. Maybe at Myre's cabin, where I stayed when she trained me before the war."

"That seems like another life," Tess said. She paused as if she'd caught herself off guard with her own words. "I guess, probably not for you. Since you've lived two lives."

"In a way, so have you," I said gently. I bent down in front of a thick-stemmed purple bulb. It had a faint aetheric aura. "You lived Cecilia's life alongside her."

"Am I on my third life, then?" She brushed her hands across a golden flower. Sparkling pollen rose up into the air, buzzed around her arm like a swarm of bees, then settled back into the puffy flower. "I'm beating you."

"If you consider the keystone, I've lived dozens of lives, and seen the course of an uncountable number more." The words came out without consideration, and I felt their effect immediately. 

Glancing over my shoulder, I found Tessia motionless, her eyes fixed at a spot between two beds of flowers.

She gave herself a little shake and straightened. "How old does that make you now? A few hundred years? A few thousand? You are more asura than man now, it seems."

"Maybe. If the combined age of my life lived on Earth and my life here represents the true age of my mind, perhaps my time in the keystone also should."

Tessia gave me a sad look, her brows drooping, her lips pouting and pale. "I'm sorry, Arthur. I know we made a promise, but I don't think I can be with someone who is several thousand years older than I am."

I laughed, and she rewarded me with a genuine smile. "I'd only ask that you make no hasty decisions, Princess Eralith."

She rolled her eyes. "Here you go with the princess thing again. Call me Tess, or Tessia or…my love, maybe. Anything but princess, or I will take up Regis's name for you in return."

I raised both hands. "Please, my…ah, Tessia," I said, stumbling over my words, "anything but that."

She plucked at her gunmetal hair, which shone almost silver in the soft light of the garden. "Okay, then. With that settled, shall we begin my flying lesson?"

I moved to a small patch of grass amid the flowers, paths, and water features. Sinking into a cross-legged sitting position, I settled my mind and focused on my core and the atmospheric aether, which was thick in the air. Tessia sat across from me, copying my posture.

"Flying isn't quite the same thing as casting a spell," I started, holding Tessia's gaze. "You don't shape the mana in your mind, giving it purpose and destination. Instead, your enhanced sense for mana and the ability to manipulate the atmospheric mana around you almost subconsciously through the jump in power from silver to white core allows you to create push as the mana physically supports your body. This is doable before reaching white core with training and patience, but even a high-silver core mage would drain their core in moments."

"It's strange. Cecilia spent so much time flying, but it's difficult to equate her use of the ability to my own." Tessia looked up into the sky. "She simply…flew. Nico, on the other hand, cast a wind spell that carried him like an invisible chariot."

I was aware of Nico's abilities, granted by a staff he had apparently designed himself. It was a shame that the staff had been destroyed during the battle. I had no doubt that Gideon and Emily would have loved to study it.

"Don't try to control the mana and shape it around you like that," I warned her gently. "Instead, simply think about rising up through the air. Will it, like Cecilia did. You won't have her inherent ability, but you do have some of her insight. Use it."

We sat still and silent for several long moments. Mana swirled around Tessia, but she didn't move, didn't rise. I considered both my first learning to fly after my own ascension to the white core stage and my relearning after gaining insight into King's Gambit. I considered activating the godrune then, to better think through the path Tessia needed to take, but something held me back.

Instead, I remained silent. This was her journey. I…needed only to be present.

A minute passed, then five. After nearly ten minutes, she opened her eyes. "I don't understand why I can't do it. I've flown before."

I stood and held out a hand to her. "Can I try something?"

She grabbed a hold and pulled herself up, her palm warm against mine. "Of course."

"Raise your arms out to your sides," I instructed as I moved to stand behind her.

Tessia glanced back at me over her shoulder as she followed my instructions. Lifting her up by her arms, the two of us began floating into the air. Her arms tensed as the whole weight of her body rose from the ground. 

"Don't concentrate. Feel. Feel the cool wind, the warm air, the ever-present mana." We rose higher up off the ground. I could feel the mana stirring at her effort, but it still wasn't clicking. Releasing some of my own aether, through it I encouraged the mana to move around Tessia, pushing against her and providing lift. "Like this."

Suddenly the weight of her in my arms lessened. I released my grip, providing her support but no longer bearing her weight.

A tense shiver ran through her. "Don't let go," she said breathlessly, her voice trembling with equal excitement and nerves.

"I'm still right here," I assured her as she drifted up and away from my touch. Slowly, I settled back down onto the ground.

A breeze made her hair flutter and rocked her back slightly. She let out a nervous giggle. "I think…I think I'm ready to try it on my own."

"Turn around," I said, hiding my smile.

Slowly, she did so. A frown creased her brow as she looked straight forward, then down to see me. A gasp escaped her lips, and the mana supporting her slipped away. She fell.

I stepped forward and smoothly caught her before she struck the ground. My lips trembled with suppressed amusement. "You did great, Tess. Really. That was—"

"Yes, well done, Princess Tessia," a voice said from nearby.

Tessia's eyes went wide as she looked at something over my shoulder. She took a quick step back from me and straightened her skirt. I did not need to turn around to know who had spoken.

"Come, Arthur. It is time we discussed recent events."

Aether raced from my core into King's Gambit. Not enough to fully activate the godrune and summon the crown of light, but enough to allow my thoughts to split into several individual threads. I quickly calculated the best way to handle the confrontation.

Tucking a stray lock of gunmetal hair behind her ear, I stepped away from Tessia. "It looks like we'll have to continue this lesson later. Perhaps Sylvie can give you some more instruction in my absence."

From across the city, my bond's voice entered my mind. 'Be careful, Arthur.'

"I was expecting my granddaughter to be with you," Kezess said from behind me. Space began to fold around me, and for a moment I could see both the garden and the interior of Kezess's tower containing the Path of Insight. "But nevermind. Time enough for that later."

The aetheric spell shivered to a stop at my beckoning, and the bare stone room faded as I pulled away from Kezess's power, grounding myself firmly to the garden in Everburn. Only then did I turn to regard the lord of dragons, taking in the slight twitch of his brows. "Why don't we fly? Mount Geolus is close enough, and I would like to see more of this land of yours."

To be continued