Chapter 92 - The Core, the Duel, and the Vaults II (Patreon)

“Oi! Who’s got an appraisal crystal?” Leona bellowed. Felix was trying hard not to move. It was easy, any little movement was agony.

“Let me see.” An officious upper year in a pristine white and silver uniform said, pushing away Felix’s hands. “Ah yeah, this one’s easy. Assuming the spell doesn’t bounce.”

With a wave of her wand and a quick word, the spell bounced right off of Felix.

“That’s… tricker. Hang on, let me get Healer Elaine for this.”

Felix’s coven made it over while he was getting fussed over. 

“What was that?” Erik asked in wide-eyed amazement.

“DUDE THAT WAS SO COOL!” Sora shouted. Felix moved his eyes down, and yup. Somehow, in all this, Sora had found caffeine. 

Everyone else started talking so fast Felix couldn’t quite keep track of everything. Someone shoved a potion into his hands with a terse ‘drink this’, and Felix gratefully downed it. He looked around, and saw Erik buckling his satchel. The other boy grinned.

“Just about time to restock on them, yeah?” He said.

“Sutter.” Leona cut in, handing him a crystal. “Appraisal crystal. Do you know how to use one?”

“Do I just push my magic into it?” Felix guessed, using his experience from earlier in the year with the power level crystals. They had a formal name… but he liked power level crystal. 

“Correct.” Leona said.

“Hang on!” Erik called out. “Some privacy, maybe? We’re in front of half the school.”

Leona - and a half-dozen Dragon House members who were crowding around - all started casting various wards and protective spells.

“Alright, go.” Erik said.

Felix wanted to freeze up. So many people were looking at him! Was this stage fright? Well, it wasn’t like he could do it wrong… wait, yes he could. A hundred different embarrassing scenarios ran through his mind.

“While we’re still young, Sutter.” Leona said.

“I’m always young. And pretty.” Chris joked. It broke the tension. Half the people there laughed, and he managed to duck Beatrix’s swipe back.

“Can’t touch this!” Chris mocked, only to get kicked in the shin. He howled in pain as he splashed down into the mud.

“Some decorum, please.” Beatrix said.

The distraction was nice. Felix managed to push his sluggish, poorly responding magic into the orb while he two mentors were doing their comedy routine. Slowly, the swirling mists inside the crystal cleared.

Felix stared with rapt attention, his heart pounding in his chest. What was it? What was he going to see?

What had he gotten from his no-good father?

“It’s big!” Vivian said when just the barest hint of fog faded.

“It’s a wyrm!” Sora shouted.

“No, it’s got wings, something draconic.” Alexandria whispered as the fog continued to clear.

Felix held his breath as he channeled magic as quickly as he could.

Alex was almost spot on. The fog fully cleared to reveal a gleaming dragon with blinding, shining scales.

“It’s a dragon.” Felix whispered. Several of the other students were echoing similar sentiments.

“What type of dragon though?” Erik wondered, peering into the orb.

“Fuck you, Sutter.” Chris spat out with surprising venom. He got up and stalked out of the privacy field. Beatrix looked utterly torn, and Felix was confused. Why wasn’t she running after her boyfriend?

Why was Chris suddenly so pissed at him? Why was he suddenly ‘Sutter’, not ‘Felix’?

Erik’s question made the circles, and suddenly everyone wanted to take a look.

“The hell?” One student asked.

“No idea.” Another one unhelpfully chimed in.

“Brynwyll? Merton?” Leona prompted. 

Beatrix was a member of the Brynwyll family, one of the six dukes of Logres. Among other things, they were famous for their dragon core bloodline, like the Morsins had the White Hart as their bloodline. It was perfectly reasonable to assume she might know all the different dragon types. Merton was taking one of the advanced magical creature courses.

“I’m… unsure.” Beatrix said. “Part of me wants to claim it’s a simple Silver Swiss, but only the coloring works. The claws, wings, mouth, tail, and so much more are all wrong. A Silver Swiss crossed with a… I’m not even sure what a Silver Swiss would cross with to make that.” She said.

“Merton?” Leona asked.

“I need to go to my dorm and check a reference book.” He said.

“Go.” Leona ordered.

Everyone hung around awkwardly for a minute before Sora started to slowly speak.

“Hey… I had a thought.” She said.

“You? Really? Don’t hurt yourself.” Vivian sniped.

“Girls, not the time.” Erik said.

“Har, har. No, really. Wards are usually punishing as hell to anyone going through them, right?” Sora said, sounding out the idea slowly and licking her lips nervously.

“Right…” Alexandria whispered. Leona and Erik’s eyes widened.

“Morsin.” Thorne whispered.

“Duke Morsin.” Erik said, looking at Felix with new eyes. “Fuuuuuck.”

“What?” Felix said, looking around with confusion.

“Our beloved and noble Duke Morsin is most famous for walking straight through Dublin’s wards, and massacring the old Morsin family.” Sora explained, all while holding her hands up in a square shape. She was moving them side to side, first looking at Felix, then at Erik. “Nobody knows how he did it. But if you’re able to walk through wards as well… and you’re the same age… mmmm… no, I don’t see the two of you being brothers though.”

“Brothers!?” Felix practically shouted. “How!?”

They lived practically half the world away from each other. Bjorn Morsin could’ve gone traveling, but none of that made sense.

Erik paled.

“I actually have the tests needed for this. Hang on.”

Erik opened up his satchel, and reached down, down, down into it.

“Ahha!” He pulled out a potion and a crumbled parchment with a triumphant grin. Leona flicked her wand, and conjured a simple, roughly cut table that squelched into the mud and tilted.

“I’ll need three drops of blood from you.” Erik said, smoothing the paper over the table. He smoothly reached in and pulled out a knife. With a quick cut near his elbow, he squeezed out three drops of blood onto the paper, then handed the knife over to Felix.

Vivian was biting her nails and shifting rapidly from foot to foot, barely managing to keep her squeals of pre-emptive delight in. Alex furrowed her eyes.

“Wait.” She rasped. “We haven’t even checked if Felix can walk through wards or not. We’re guessing here, and jumping straight to a test before checking what we know.”

Felix paused before slicing into himself. Not cutting himself sounded good.

With a flicker of her wand and a muttered incantation, Leona created several glowing blue lines on the ground.

“Try stepping over them. This one first.” She said.

Felix stepped over each of the lines without any issue. Leona’s frown grew more pronounced.

“One of those should’ve worked.” She complained. “A harmless barrier, a binding, a crossing alarm… one of those should’ve done something. Being able to slip through things that easily…” She shook her head. “Be careful, Sutter. Everyone’s going to want a piece of you.”

Felix nodded, looking at his friend, and maybe… his brother?

How would he feel if he suddenly had a father?

“Cut! Cut! Cut! Blood for the blood paper!” Sora chanted, breaking him out of his thoughts. With only a bit of hesitation, Felix cut in the same place Erik did, and bled on the paper.

In one swift motion Erik uncorked the potion, and poured it over the paper. They all held their breath while the potion worked it’s magic, and…

“What does it say!” Vivian asked.

“We share a common ancestor around 40 generations back.” Erik said. “Which is to say, we’re not related at all.”

“Nooooo!” Vivian wailed. “It would’ve been perfect!”

She descended into a gibbering mess about ‘long-lost brothers’ and ‘beautiful stories’ and other such complaints. 

Felix wasn’t sure what he felt, his stomach was doing so many flip-flops. He thought he’d made peace with the fact that he didn’t have a father. But for three whole minutes, he thought he might’ve had one, and known who it was. Gotten a brother and a sister. Had… so much more than he could comprehend.

And now, he didn’t.

“Well, that neatly prevents a major succession crisis.” Sora cheerfully said.

“Morgana curse it. How did Morsin get through the wards? And what’s going on with Felix?” Alexandria whispered.

“Hey, everyone asks me how my dad did it. I have no idea, he hasn’t told me. Don’t know if he ever will.” Erik said. “Plus, it’d be a family secret even if I did know.”

Merton came back a moment later at a run, not even breathing hard.

“We’ve got two possibilities.” He said without preamble, pulling out a textbook. “Both of them are extremely rare, and not a lot is known about them. The first is a spirit dragon. Not an exact species, but a subtype of dragon. They’re not physical beings, more like a side-step from undead. You’ll learn more about spirits in Natural World in one of the later years. Alternatively, the closest physical dragon I could find, keeping in mind that Felix is from America, is the Patagonian Mirrorscale. Which has about three sentences describing it.”

Felix made grabby motions with his hands towards the book. Everyone who could crowded around the table as the relevant pages were perused.

Patagonian Mirrorscale: 

The Mirrorscale has only a handful of sightings to its name, none of them confirmed. Most evidence of its existence comes from the mirror-bright scales that it’ll occasionally shed, along with other traditional dragon remains. The purpose of the scales is unknown, with camouflage being the best theory, given how elusive and untrackable the dragons are. Other evidence are bright flashes of light in the sky and in the mountains, believed to be when the sunlight reflects off the Patagonian’s scales.

One controversial theory is that the Mirrorscale doesn’t exist at all, and we’re simply finding the remains of a mirror scaled predator that hunts other dragons in the same range. 

Felix read and re-read the passage, almost imagining a tumbleweed passing by.

“Hang on. If it’s so damn rare that it’s practically a legend, how the heck does someone have a core?” Vivian demanded.

“You need to consider the source.” Erik immediately replied, rapping a knuckle on the book. “This is a Logres book, by a Logres author. We’ve got almost no visibility into the Empire of the Sun. For all we know, it’s a closely guarded bloodline of one of their high priests or something similar. The fact that it’s even made into an entry here means it’s common and well-known enough for rumors to reach our shores, which in my mind, makes it likely it exists.” He said.

Leona was looking at Erik appraisingly.

“Good critical thinking.” She praised.

Erik’s grin was lazy.

“Thanks. I can hear my tutor reciting ‘consider the source’ in my dreams.” He said.

“What does this all mean?” Felix asked.

“It means you’ve got a dragon core.” Leona immediately answered. “It’s a powerful one, and it’s not native to Logres or anywhere else in Europe. You’re able to do remarkable things, and I strongly recommend testing the limits of it. Also, wait, remind me of what your wand is again?”

“Err. Four leaf clover material, horned rabbit core in a clover cut.” Felix said, pulling out his green wand again. 

Basically everyone pulled a face.

“And you’re casting with that thing?” Merton plucked the wand out of Felix’s hands. “Good gods, man, it’s a miracle you managed to pass Charms!”

“What is the connection between Felix’s wand and core?” Vivian asked. “I don’t see it.”

“Horned rabbits have the most distant connection to… dragons… oh no.” Beatrix buried her face in her hands. “Felix, I’m so sorry!”

“Huh?” Felix asked, continuously confused.

“At Wilder’s. I went first, and got the only wand that resonated well with a dragon core. If I’d let you go first, your wand would be a much better match.” She said, taking in a deep breath to recenter herself. “I must formally apologize.”

To Felix’s surprise, Erik waved it off. There was definitely subtext to this whole thing he was missing. Lots of it. This is why he liked books, magic, and money, and not politics. They were kids! They shouldn’t have to worry about these sorts of things. Plus… why was Erik stepping in to speak for him? That was weird. Either way, Felix was going to shut up and grapple with the question of who his father was. Briefly.

Well, none of that had really changed, had it? Now he knew… and oh boy, the sheer implications of magic bouncing off him. He needed to test it, but he didn’t have years of experience stomping down this hope. He had no practice extinguishing this excitement. He could have something neat and cool, just for himself.

If Leona, one of the strongest students in the school - and from what he’d heard, already something of a magical powerhouse in Logres - couldn’t magically touch him, that meant he was untouchable by a lot of people.

“Don’t worry about it!” Erik said. “Your family needs dragon cores, you were reasonably following your obligations. Think back. If you had known Felix needed a dragon core wand, and there was one right there, would you have let it go, or tried to outbid Felix?”

Beatrix frowned and sighed.

“Outbid and otherwise compensated.” She confessed.

“See! Not a problem.” Erik said.

“You’re not a Patagonian Mirrorscale.” Leona suddenly said. “Or if you are, you’re the spirit version of one.” 

“How do you figure?” Erik said, as everyone turned to the woman.

“Too many little things don’t add up.” She said. “Now, I’m going to assume the Mirrorscale ‘simply’ reflects magic. A stronger version of most dragons being able to turn spells with their scales. But all of the bad luck we’ve had today? Everything going wrong? I’m pinning that all on Sutter’s core. It was trying to subtly get him out of trouble. For a given definition of subtle.”

“I did struggle to wake up this morning.” Felix said, thinking back on it. “Wait…”

He turned to Sora.

“Perfect dueling record, yeah?” He asked.

“Yup!” She agreed.

“But half the time I don’t get called to duel… I missed the dueling tournament…” Felix started to think back on the year.

“Didn’t get hit in siege.” Sora pointed out.

“You were the only one that got hit.” Alexandria whispered.

“Yeah, but how many times have other students thrown a curse at us?” Vivian asked. “How many times did Felix get hit?”

They turned to him.

“Never?” He said, thinking back on all the close misses he’d had that year. “Huh.”

“There’s an element of precognition and reality-luck bending that I don’t think is associated with physical dragons, but happens to be more in the spirit creature realm. Your ancestor must be close, the core’s effect is quite strong.” Leona said.

Merton let off a blast like a gunshot from his staff.

“WAIT! TIME OUT!” He shouted, then whirled to Leona.

“Commander, I have an idea. Permission to speak freely?” He asked.

“Granted.” Leona said. Merton got all animated.

“We have the chance to do the coolest thing ever. You need to test your abilities. You can walk through wards. You know what that means?” He asked with the biggest smile Felix had ever seen.

“What?” He asked.

“You can rob the house vaults blind. Just imagine it! End of year tally. Dragon House: 20,000 points. Everyone else: Single digits. We’d win so hard, it’d cascade into next year and have us win a second time. Nobody’s ever done it. Commander, we should cancel the tournament and just go now, as an entire house, to give him a hand.”

Leona was stroking her chin.

“Or we just send the five of them, and continue the tournament as a diversion. If everyone sees us going down there, they’ll want to know what’s going on. Speed and stealth, over shock and awe.” She said.

“Dude, YES! Let’s GO!” Sora shouted, and immediately started running towards the castle.

“This sounds like fun. Dude, want to go? Get out of the crowds, test what the heck you can do, get some time with just us to think and talk it all over?” Erik said.

Felix nodded. Getting out of everything and having time to think and talk it over with his friends sounded great. Pulling the biggest stunt of the year at the same time? Well, it sounded like it’d make his friends happy, and he was sure in a few hours or days he’d appreciate that he did it.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Felix said.

“A heist! Oooh, I’ve always wanted to do one of those!” Vivian said. “Hang on, I’ll change my outfit and meet you all there.”

The four of them started to head back towards the castle. Behind them, Leona took down the wards and restarted the tournament.

“Do we want to get Hazel for this?” Erik asked. “I can understand if it’s too personal.”

It took no time at all for Felix to decide.

“Yeah, let’s bring her along!”

=======

Hazel slowly crept down from the stands, carefully avoiding brushing up against anyone.

It had been… nice, watching her friend duel. She thought she was up for watching the whole event, but it was getting too crowded, too energetic, too fast. She’d been here, she supported everyone, she was absolutely and utterly done with people for the day. And it wasn’t even 10! 

Yup, social obligations met, some socializing done, time spent with her friends… she could find one of her holes and spend the rest of the day alone, utterly guilt-free. 

She was curious about one thing though, and carefully dodged through the crowds in order to sneak up to the appraisal stone. She’d seen it get taken out, but privacy charms had gone up before she saw what Felix had. She was quite curious what her friend could have that would be deflecting her attempts to peer into his mind, but not so curious she was going to seek him out right now. They’d tell her the next time they met up. 

Slowly, carefully, dodging all the careless people around - she couldn’t read most of them, and she especially couldn’t read a ‘slipped in mud, fall on invisible girl’, just a sharp spike of alarm before someone came crashing down - and snuck up on the appraisal orb. She quickly pocketed it, then darted back out of the crowd.

Once safe under the bleachers, she took the orb out of her pocket, and pushed her magic into it. It responded quickly and eagerly, a slow trickle quickly becoming a rushing river.

For a moment she thought the orb was defective. It was showing the outline of a person, after all, almost what she’d expect to see from a normal glass orb.

But the angle was all wrong. The shape wasn’t her.

The woman in the orb was beautiful, in a way Hazel would never be. Long hair, a hand on her chest as she sang, and the one feature that clued her into her ancestor. From the waist down, a fishtail replaced legs.

“Mermaid.” Hazel whispered to herself, then frowned.

The Frog Choir had insisted that she had a singing voice - when they’d found her. Which had happened exactly once before she mastered the art of avoiding them. Singing, mermaids, something about that didn’t sound quite right… what was it again…

Ah!

Hazel smiled as the pieces clicked. She’d need to double check it in a book… if she ever wanted to really confirm it. Which she didn’t. She didn’t want to know if she was wrong.

It sounded so nice to be a siren.

========

AN: AND THE BIG REVEAL! NOW, it's worth re-reading Song and picking up on all the missed hints. One sketch of the scene didn't have Beatrix revealing 'oops I fucked up your wand selection', because I really enjoyed the idea of people re-reading and going 'wait! I figured it out!', except the characters didn't want to have that happen. Ah well. And congratulations to the ONE PERSON who said 'It's a dragon, because that's on the cover'. At this point, I don't believe it's possible to put spoilers on a book cover.

Cheers all! Just a few more chapters to wrap up the book!