Dragon Sorcerer 3- Chapter 106 (Patreon)

I'm not very good at this schedule thing. I'm back from vacation today so hoping for a very productive week.

I know that many of you are only here for Dragon Sorcerer- but again- I do have to finish my other work.

That means that most of my work this week is going to be on Law of Consequences- the conclusion of the Four Laws series under my David Burke pen name.

I may still get some more Dragon Sorcerer chapters- but I will have to keep myself from writing them until I meet a minimum standard each day in Law of Consequences given that it is the next book which has to publish.


Chapter 106- Listening for the Storm

I slept in as late as I could, but for some reason, I found myself waking early in the day. I’d promised Lisella that I’d be up by noon today. She wanted to go over her meeting with Tolston and the rewards that he would get for putting up with the annoying human’s attempt to trap us. I was certainly eager to find out what treasure I’d be getting, yet I found myself rather fidgety this morning.

Well, maybe he had actually trapped us, but that was only because I couldn’t transform. In my true form, I would have made short work of that barrier. Hiding who I was had started to get old. Last night I had dreamed, but they were not dragon dreams. It was more mundane, but more pleasant. I had dreamed that all of the teachers, adventurers, students, and even the annoying administrators had all become my minions.

They took turns bring me treasures and food, although I had made the administrators all work on dragon dung removal duty with Modessa as their working foreman. Even the memory of the dream brought a smile to my lips.

That was nothing compared to the smile I got when Lisella told me about the 20,000 gold. The signature spell thingie sounded like it would be very useful and I tried to show a proper level of concern when she expressed her worry about the class that Tolston had created. I just couldn’t really care. If the man knew, then so be it. Maybe I could start at least sleeping in my proper form. Moving around the university would still require a human form, but that was fine, since I’d have 20,000 gold to sleep on.

Now, though, I was on my way up to one of several towers which made up the university. The professor who was going to teach me storm magic was up there. Apparently, he wasn’t a true professor in that he didn’t teach other students. Lisella had worked on him to get the man to be willing to teach me, and it had required her to fund some of his research.

When I got up to the top of the tower, I found that the man wasn’t in the highest room, although he must have been at some point because it was in shambles. There were books, papers, large canvases with intricate diagrams drawn on them all spread throughout the room with a small cot. It was as messy as a red dragon’s lair.

There was a small set of stairs that led up to the roof and a voice which called down. “If that is my new student, then hurry up.” The voice was a deep baritone and had quite a rich timbre for a human voice.

I didn’t care for being ordered around, but there was no point in fighting it. It was unlikely that another human would have as much to teach me as Master Edgar had, but there was no harm in trying.

When I got up there, I found a man running measuring the distance between three oddly shaped metal rods which were affixed to the stone roof of the tower. Each rod was approximately six feet tall and six inches wide, but with curved patterns and intricate runes carved into it.

Metal wire perhaps made of copper connected the different rods and after whatever he was doing the human knelt down to check part of the wiring before looking up at me.

When he did, I took his measure. He was a little under six feet tall, relatively thin. I’d guess he was young for a human, but slightly older than Lisella. His skin was a rich ebony, which was striking against his attire and the brightness of his blue eyes. I found little variations amongst the humans pleasing. His hair was short almost to the point of looking like it was growing back after having been shaved, although upon closer inspection, I could see what looked like mostly healed scorch marks on his head.

His outfit was a sleeveless shirt and trousers rather than the robes I saw so many mages wearing. This was definitely better in my opinion but then again Serius always seemed to be reaching into his robes for something or the other. There might be reasons. The material of his clothing was thick but flexible. I could see how this might be beneficial not only in combat but also in moving around. The clothing was blue and trimmed in silver.

The other thing which struck me about the rooftop was the scent of ozone. It was one which took my back to my childhood, which in reflection was really only less than a year ago. Time was going by quickly. I clearly needed to stop and smell the ozone more often.

Once he finally stopped working on the wires, he stood up, smoothed his clothing and then took a good, long look at me. His eyes seemed to weigh me. Then he snorted. “Don’t look like much of a mage. You sure you’re in the right place?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Not sure how you think you’re going to teach me anything about the storm.”

He locked his piercing blue eyes on me. The color was, of course fascinating, but more than that, I swore I could see lightning flickering across his pupils. “At least you have the boldness of the storm. The storm doesn’t ask who wants rain. It doesn’t care if you prepare or not. It vents its rage and power where it will as it will, and can be either a blessing or a curse.”

I liked his description of the storm but didn’t need any extra words, so I waited.

He nodded as though confirming something. “Very well. I’m Rizal Atreides, but none of this Master Atreides or Professor this or that. We’ll either ride the storm together or not and in the midst of the storm, no man is master over another.”

My curiosity finally got the better of me. I waved my hand at the metal rods he’d been working on. “What’s all this?”

He smiled. “An experiment in trying to learn more about the storm without magic. But we’ll talk about that later. For now, I need to assess your abilities before I can know what to teach you.”

With that, he asked me to show him any storm related. I first cast Call the Charge and then Weave the Wind and finally Thunderclap.

Rizal watched patiently until a few seconds after I cast the third spell. “Is that all?”

My eyes narrowed. Was this yet another human intent upon challenging me?

“I thought you were to teach me not me you.”

“Yes, but it requires a certain amount of aptitude. If you were truly going to be a storm mage, then I’d expect you to know more than three storm related spells. The ones you know were well cast, showing that either you have natural talent or lots of practice. But if there isn’t more, then why should I waste my time away from my experiments?”

“Because Lisella is funding your experiments… if I had to guess.”

He grinned. “They say money talks, but even gold only goes so far. The storm doesn’t care how much coin you have when it hits.”

I was lost for a minute. Gold only goes so far. Who could think such nonsense? Maybe this was a mistake. Then another thought hit me. Perhaps if he knew who I really was, he would feel differently. I’d been keeping this secret, but that was starting to bore me. Perhaps if Edgar had known about my true nature, he could have helped me obtain a legendary class rather than just the epic version.

“I can show you much more about the storm but it will have to be done outside the city and you’ll have to swear a system oath to keep my secret until I give you permission to share it.”

No sooner had I said the words than I realized I could have used my electrical breath to demonstrate a greater connection to the storm. Equally, I could have shown him my immunity to electricity. Yet here I had just offered to reveal my true nature and now, even knowing that it was a bad idea, I still didn’t regret it. I must really be getting tired of hiding. Besides, he was only a single human. If the worst happened, I’d simply kill him.

Rizal stared at me for a moment. He seemed to be weighing what I’d just said. “Aren’t I supposed to be the one saying that to you? Granted, I’ve never had a formal student or apprentice or whatever this is. I’m more into research, but I assumed you’d have to give me an oath to keep my secrets.” Then he shrugged, “But whatever. If you’re wasting my time, then this is over and the Princess can keep her gold.”

I sent a quick mental message to Cami. It hadn’t occurred to me at first, but by revealing my true nature, even if only to a single mage, I was also exposing her. Lisella probably would have thought that I was growing by showing concern for another being. “My new tutor is going to make a system oath, and then I’m going to reveal my nature to him.”

Cami didn’t reply immediately, but perhaps thirty seconds later she said, “If you think that’s a good decision, then I support you.”

For some reason, Nico felt quite relieved that she hadn’t questioned him.

She continued though, “How are you feeling about having to start taking some group classes?”

“Lisella said she was going to get me into the alchemy class. Of all the humans I’ve met at the university, the old woman who teaches it was the most interesting.” Then I chuckled inside my head. “Her name even sorta sounds like yours.”

Cami seemed hesitant as she continued, “I admit that I find it sorta difficult to picture you standing around mixing potions.”

“Oh, I’d need minions to do most of the mundane work, but if the potions could enhance us in battle or sold for a lot of gold, then it might be worth it. Besides, look at the legendary class you got. With some luck, maybe I could get extra stat points from a crafting class. I am here to learn human things, anyway.”

“What about the class for prospective dragon riders?”

I groaned internally at that. “I don’t want to talk about that now. I just wanted to tell you. We’re heading out of the city now.” Thinking about that class made me feel angry, so rather than blow up, I simply decided to deal with it later.

That was the end of our conversation. Cami seemed to need far less of what the humans called small talk lately. It was quite pleasing. She was becoming a good companion.

My focus returned to what I was doing, or rather what Rizal was doing. He had cast a spell which created a cloud for the two of us to sit upon. It was fascinating and Tier 5 magic, so a part of me had almost duplicated it, but I decided that movement spells like this were ultimately a waste when I could fly either in my true form or in my classes’ transformed state.

We streaked across the sky after checking out with the gate guards. Why Rizal bothered with that when he could simply fly over the walls was something which plagued me for a while until I finally asked, “Why’d you do that?”

He arched his eyebrow as he looked at me, clearly uncertain of what I’d just asked. Of course, he wasn’t privy to the chain of thoughts which had been dancing through my head ever since we left the city.

“Why’d you stop and get permission from the city guard to leave, when you have the power to simply fly over the walls?”

“Ah, well, the power of the storm gives me the ability to do many things, but sometimes it’s still good to work with others. What happens if I need those city guards in the future? It didn’t really cost us any time, but now they know I respect their position.”

I snorted. Maybe I was still learning more about humans.