Dragon Sorcerer 2- Chapter 52 (Patreon)

A few things:

1) I may add a prologue before this still, but I'll post it if I do.
2) I had initially planned for a time skip between book 1 and 2, but it simply doesn't feel right. I spent a fair amount of time tonight getting back into the place to write this and this is what I came up with.
3) As always these chapters are unedited. There are going to be mistakes- and feel free to point them out but the editor and proofreaders will likely catch most of them.

What is unique in your place as a patron is your ability to comment about the characters, plot, pacing, world building, etc...

I can't accommodate everyone or every idea. Some may be very cool but not work with my story. But, I'm not soo big that I can't make mistakes and I'm always willing to learn. So feel free to comment and add to the story. 

Oh and yeah, I know it took me till after midnight my time to get it done, but I didn't go to bed without bringing you the chapter.



Chapter 1- The Devil You Know

I felt like I was in a haze. The guards downstairs were suddenly quiet. One minute they’d been calling up, asking for the dragon rider to come down. That’d be pretty hard. The next time she was going anywhere was when her ‘domesticated-dragon’ craps her out.

Still, I’d learned so much up to now and didn’t know what to make of half of it. One minute, I had been certain of the unassailable superiority of dragons. Now, I was confronted by the existence of a dragon, which seemed little more than a very intelligent monster.

And how? How was such a thing even possible? I could blame it on the fact that she, no, she had a name, even if it was a slave name. Matilda had been raised in captivity as had her parents before her. The system had even created a new designation for her kind of being.

It wasn’t that, though. I knew to my core, that even if I were held in captivity for a thousand years, I would always remain a dragon. That couldn’t be taken from me. To consider otherwise was to rock me to my core.

No, the simple answer was that there was one difference between me and Matilda. She was cut off from the dragon dream. As far as the dream was concerned, she might as well not even exist. The dragon dream was at its simplest level a form of genetic memory which provided me with the memories and experiences of my ancestors.

It wasn’t like it was all there at my fingertips. How I perceived it and what I recalled sometimes seemed arbitrary, but with work, I could learn most anything my ancestors had known, going back tens of thousands of years. That alone was powerful, but the dragon dream was so much more.

Much of it I had taken for granted. It was a way of connecting with other dragons and a way of connecting to the world around me. Words failed me. I knew I needed to understand more about it. I needed to learn the history of the dream. That would open for me my own history.

Not that I could worry about that right now. I had a pregnant dragon in front of me who was soon to lay eggs. She was smart enough that once I had broken the collar on her, that she had immediately killed the one who had sought to ride her. Would I come to resent Cami like that? No, I shook my head. I couldn’t afford to think like that now.

I had to save Matilda. She didn’t deserve bondage like this. Her children certainly didn’t deserve it, either. But, I simply wasn’t set up to save them yet. I might be able to guide her to the wild, but what did I know about surviving in the larger world? I had lived in a cave in the desert for most of my life.

Worse, I realized that I didn’t want to leave the university. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was much for me to learn here. I just didn’t know how that was supposed to work now.

Then I heard a soft cough behind me. I spun on the balls of my feet, my hands reflexively coming up. Maybe I really was going to get the hang of this fragile form.

Standing fifteen feet behind me was none other than Modessa. Seeing her caused rage to rise up in me. Was this what she had intended for me? Was it what she’d done to my sister?

She seemed wary as she looked at me. “You asked for me?”

Her words brought me back to the moment. I didn’t know what was happening in this situation. I could change and fly away or try to fly away. If I was honest with myself, I was a little scared that the mages here would find a way to trap me. I glanced back at Matilda. That made me afraid. I couldn’t bear the thought of becoming something like that.

I struggled to form the words. The storm of emotions inside of me was too great for me to speak. Modessa looked at me. She seemed to be determining if I was dangerous. She took a step forward and when I didn’t react; she took another.

Finally, she reached out and touched my arm.

“It doesn’t make it okay and I don’t expect your forgiveness, but we didn’t mean for you to find out this way. Frankly, we didn’t even know exactly what we were getting into.”

For the flicker of a second, I felt something warm rise up within me. It was almost like her words made me feel better, but then I remembered the look in Matilda’s eyes and mirrored against was the look in Sheraleigh’s eyes as I’d fled the cave. I jerked my arm back.

“Intentions are thin. Words are hollow. Only actions count.”

She locked eyes with me for a moment, as though daring me to take action. Then she looked down at the floor and nodded. Her chest rose slowly and then she spoke. “I’ll help you escape if you want. But if you want more than that, you’ll need my help. No, you’ll need our help. The entire team is onboard. I don’t even know if this is a good idea, but I know you deserve the chance to show us you’re more than a monster.

“So all that remains is for you to ask if you can accept the help of some humans. Can you do that if it gets you want you want in the end?”

I pondered her words. I wanted revenge, but I needed something more. Modessa likely wasn’t the human who had done this to Matilda. It had been done long ago and was part of a system larger than the rogue. She might serve that system, but she wasn’t it. So, I had to decide if it was better to trust her or to take my chances with the forces here at the university and beyond.

For the moment, I chose the devil I knew rather than uncertain evils.

But thinking about the system of power at the university raised a new question in my mind. The system was separate from the gods, but interacted with them in some way. How could the system allow this to happen to Matilda, or any dragon? I needed to understand just what this force was that put notifications into my mind and helped me to quantify my growth. That would have to wait.

Modessa shook my arm.

“We’re running out of time. You have to decide. I swear on the life of my apprentice that I will do nothing to reveal your involvement here today and I’ll do everything I can to make right what has been done to your people. But you’re right. Words are empty, so we need to act and we need to do so now.”

I nodded. “Okay for now.”

Then she started stalking around the room. She took careful stock of everything but was careful not to get too close to Matilda. After a few seconds she said, “As I see it we have three big problems and two simpler ones.”

In my mind, the only problem was how to free Matilda, but I struggled to slow my thoughts down. There was too much at stake. I didn’t like it, but Matilda was going to have to play this game for a bit longer. “The first problem is what to do with Matilda. The second problem is what to do about the humans she ate. The lesser issues are the tools which I used to Fabricate my pry claw and the general aura of magic in here. But I can’t think of a third mage problem.”

When I mentioned the humans Matilda had eaten, Modessa’s face grew pale and her chest seemed to freeze mid breath. That pleased me, but I hid the smirk, or at least I think I did.

“Good, you’re starting to think things through rather than just acting.”

Her tone felt demeaning, but I’d heard her speak to Cami like this more than once. If I had to guess, this was her teacher mode. Well, I could learn. I’d take what they had to offer and then use it when the time came to bury them.

“The third problem is you. You look like you aged three years.” As she spoke, I felt the tingle of magic. She wasn’t using Identify but some sort of class skill. “Oh, you did age three years.”

If only she knew the truth. I’d gained farm than three years. I’d gained the power which would have normally come only after decades of growth and I owed it to the bond with Cami. I remembered the notification.

You have gained: +10% Age Rank growth per level gained by your companion. Retroactive: 70% growth obtained.

There wasn’t time for my mind to dwell on that, but the potential gain was beyond imagining. That was dragon business, though. It was the responsibility of the dragon and I supposed their bonded companion. This wasn’t for sharing with others. “It isn’t quite that simple, but if you want me to appear like I did before, I can.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Show me.”

I needed time to figure out just how much to share with the rogue, but for now, I’d have to at least let her see a limited part of my Shape Change ability. I focused for a moment and remembered what I’d felt like, what I’d looked like before the upgrades. Then I made the subtle shifts and was back to my eighteen-year-old self. Well, I was still over fifty years old chronologically, but I my character sheet said I was an eighteen-year-old human once again and my body reflected that.

Modessa whistled softy. “I can’t even sense anything off about you. It doesn’t read as a disguise or any type of magic I’ve ever heard of before.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s a dragon thing.”

She pursed her lips. “We don’t have time now, but someday soon, you’re going to need to share more with the team if we are going to keep risking ourselves for you.”

I didn’t say a word, but simply stood there staring at her.

“Terrance is easy enough. I can spin a tail of him running off with a girl. He had enough of a reputation for that sort of thing, from what I’ve heard since being back. Explaining Shavi’s disappearance is going to take some major doing, but what I’m really worried about is that collar. Can you get it back on Matilda?”

I felt a rumbling in my chest that vibrated into my throat. “I wouldn’t even if I could.”

“A missing dragon rider is going to throw up all kinds of flags. Maybe we can sell the idea that she and Terrance ran away, but a missing dragon would have the imperial inquisitors here looking into the matter. Actually, if you can just get the collar on here, then we can have Cami work with her. Shavi’s disappearance will be easier to sell if we have a replacement dragon rider.”

I thought about it for a second. “I’d be willing to put the collar back on her so long as we ruin the magic on it so it won’t affect her. It would have to become just a plain metal band.”

“I can do that,” Serius said from the stairs. Wow, did I ever miss my dragon hearing and smell. I would have been able to pick him up much sooner with those.

Modessa said, “It just depends on if you can convince her to put it back on. She’s already eaten two humans, I don’t want to let her try for three.”

I chuckled and couldn’t contain it. The image of Modessa’s legs futilely kicking as they hung out of Matilda’s mouth while she took her time slowly biting down was simply too funny for me to restrain myself.

Modessa and Serius looked at one another. They had the look of prey. That was good. They should be fearful. Once I reined in my laughter, Modessa said, “I doubt I want to know what you were laughing about.”

That almost set me off all over again, but I held it in. “That depends on how curious you are about what the inside of a dragon looks like.”

Neither of them laughed. “To answer your question, yes, I can make her. Scoot back. I’m going to need some room to work with.”

Modessa joined Serius at the top of the stairs as I started to flex while my body expanded to its proper shape. Then I added, “With dragons it’s all about dominance.”