The Consequences of Meeting a Dragon

The rest of the class went by peacefully. The other students kept giving their professor uneasy looks for a while, but they eventually recovered and regained their enthusiasm for the practice assignment and the chance to get individual help from a grandmaster. Thenio noticed some envious glances in his direction, presumably because of the little black dragon perched on his table. He had expected that having Iggy close by while he was working would be a huge distraction, but other than occasionally humming softly to himself, the dragon was surprisingly calm and quiet. Maybe he was used to watching Ariom work? He seemed interested in what Thenio was doing, but he didn't interrupt.

It took Thenio a little while to settle back down as well. He was grateful to have the packet of practice diagrams to focus on. He was a bit anxious about his upcoming talk with Ariom, not knowing exactly what the grandmaster had in mind. But he eventually managed to set those thoughts aside and immerse himself in piecing the centuries-old enchantments back together.

He had made it through more than half the packet by the time the bell for the end of class chimed. He looked up briefly as his classmates started bustling around and cleaning up their things, but then he focused his attention back on the diagram he was working on. He knew the enthusiastic students would keep asking questions as long as Ariom was willing to stay and answer them, so it would probably be a while before he was free.

There were even a few students—mostly girls—who came over to Thenio's workstation to talk to Iggy. The little dragon seemed to enjoy the attention. He chatted happily and allowed them to stroke his back and scratch his ears.

He refused to leave Thenio's table, however. Apparently he took his assignment from Ariom very seriously.

After about twenty minutes, Ariom shooed away the crowd of students and came over to them.

"I'm sorry, but I need my dragon back now," he told the girls who were still fussing over Iggy. "We have to get to an appointment in another part of campus. Thenio, you're coming with us."

Thenio was a bit startled by this, but he hurriedly packed his things into his bag and stood up to leave. Iggy hopped off the table and flapped his way up to Ariom's shoulder, where he sat and waved one of his front paws in farewell as they exited the room.

Thenio thought he caught a glimpse of Professor Erish glowering at him just before he went through the classroom door, but he quickly turned away before she noticed him looking at her.

Scary.

But he already had a high chance of failing this class, and there was no reason for him to take the side of a teacher who hadn't helped or even listened to him. Ariom's 'not the kind of help that you want' worried him, but it was still the best prospect that Thenio had at the moment.

It was probably better to avoid Professor Erish as much as possible in the future, though. Maybe he ought to think about transferring to a different department....

Well, that was something to worry about later, once he knew whether he'd even be able to stay at the academy or not.

He followed silently behind Ariom as he wove through the students and teachers in the corridor. The wizard and his dragon attracted a lot of curious looks. Ariom ignored these, but Iggy looked around with great interest. A few people noticed him looking at them and smiled or waved. The little dragon waved back, tail swishing happily.

They finally made their way out of the building and started along one of the sidewalks that crisscrossed the campus.

"Um...where are we going, exactly?" Thenio finally dared to ask.

"The necromancy building."

"We're going to see the crystal guy!" Iggy chimed in.

"Oh." Thenio decided not to comment on the dragon's lack of helpful information. "Is that where your appointment is?"

"It's where your appointment is. A professor I know—the 'crystal guy,' as Iggy calls him—is in charge of a lab there. I told him I'd probably be bringing you over today in order to run some tests."

That wasn't really what Thenio had been expecting, but it made some sense once he thought about it. "Is that what you meant by helping me?"

"More or less." Ariom paused a moment, looking pensive. "I...have an idea about what's causing your magic instability. The tests are to confirm my hypothesis."

"You know what's causing it? Really?" Thenio couldn't help getting a bit excited.

"Well...possibly," Ariom said cautiously. "I could be wrong."

"What do you think it is?"

But Ariom shook his head. "I probably shouldn't say more than that until after the tests."

Thenio frowned at these words but didn't argue. It was frustrating to wait when the solution might be close at hand. But if Ariom didn't want to talk, it wasn't like he could force the words out of him.

"Do you have enchanters in your family?" Ariom asked, breaking the brief silence.

Thenio hesitated, a little reluctant to answer. "Well, not exactly. My parents are both magic assistants. My father is a scribe, and my mother does alchemy preparations."

They were magic assistants who were very bitter about not being fully certified wizards and strongly pushed their sons into studying magic as a way to make up for their own perceived shortcomings. But he didn’t mention that part.

"I see." Ariom nodded. "Well, that would explain it. Aside from the stability problems, your scribing ability is unusually good for a first-year's. You must have learned from your father. A lot of assistant scribes do really beautiful work. Most certified enchanters could stand to learn a thing or two from them."

Thenio raised his eyebrows. That was unexpected. There was nothing shameful about being a magic assistant, of course. It was a respectable job with a good salary, and assistants played a vital part in the magic industry as a whole. But a lot of full-fledged wizards regarded them as failures and looked down on them. He'd never expected to hear a grandmaster, of all people, praising them like that.

And wasn't that the second time Ariom had complimented Thenio's work? That was pretty unexpected, too.

"Well, my parents have always taken magic education really seriously,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed. “And they think crafting magic is the most practical career choice for anyone who doesn't have a special affinity, so they started teaching my brothers and me enchanting and alchemy when we were really young. I like both, but for some reason I have more problems with magic control when I try to do alchemy. So I went with enchanting when I started school here."

"Hmm. That fits..." Ariom said, a bit cryptically. "What is your affinity, by the way?"

"Water." He needed to ask? Huh. Thenio would have guessed that Ariom could identify affinities using magesight, if he was good enough at it to recognize Thenio’s instability. But apparently not?

"Was that the result of the test the school gave you?"

"That's right."

"And is that the only time you've ever had your affinity tested?"

"Well...yeah. I mean, younger kids don't usually get tested, right? Since affinity doesn't matter that much at lower power levels?"

"That's...how it usually is, yes. I was just checking."

Thenio frowned. Those questions seemed a little strange. Especially since Iggy was looking back and forth between the two of them, as though he wanted to say something. Ariom reached up and gave him a few light pats. The dragon settled back down, but he kept glancing at Thenio and looking a bit discontented.

What was that about? Did they think the test was wrong? The academy tested all incoming students—thousands of them every year—and Thenio had never heard of anyone getting the wrong results. And it was perfectly natural for him to have a water affinity, since his mother's affinity was clay with a water primary. It was true that he wasn't as good at water magic as he should be...but, well, he wasn't as good at any kind of magic as he should be....

He considered trying to get more answers out of Ariom, but he decided to be patient for now. They had almost reached their destination, anyway.

The necromancy lab building wasn't far away from the enchanting one, and the two were similar in layout and design. That made sense, considering how much overlap there was between the two fields of study. Necromancy could be loosely defined as enchanting applied to living things. Or formerly living things, although only a small percentage of modern necromancers dealt with corpses on a regular basis. And most of those worked in archaeology or forensics. But the name and some of its historical associations still persisted. That was one reason why the necromancy building was far less crowded than the enchanting building had been.

Though the bigger reason was probably just that it was hard to become a high-level necromancer if you didn't have an affinity for life magic. And people who were lucky enough to be born with that affinity usually preferred to study healing magic. Wizards like Ariom, who studied necromancy as a supplement to their main area of expertise, were fairly common, but pure necromancers were quite rare.

Ariom led Thenio up to the second floor of the building and into a large room full of strange equipment. There was a young man in a teaching apprentice uniform who was adjusting something on a large, complicated-looking machine that stood against the far wall. A middle-aged man in a professor's uniform sat at a desk near the door. He seemed to be grading a pile of student essays, but he looked up when they entered.

"Oh, Ariom. You're here. Come in, come in." He beckoned them over and started tidying up his papers. "Go ahead and take a seat," he added, nodding toward a couple of chairs that were placed in front of the desk.

"Hi, crystal guy!" Iggy called out and waved as they approached.

"Nice to see you again, Iggy," the professor said with a smile. "Have you been staying out of trouble?"

"I always stay out of trouble." The dragon pouted a little. "...mostly. Mostly always."

"I'm sure you do." The man chuckled. Then he looked over at the apprentice. "Bauto, come over when you're finished with that, all right?"

"Got it. I’m almost done."

The professor turned back to them. "Well, then. This must be the student you wanted us to run some tests on."

"That's right." Ariom sat in one of the chairs, and Iggy jumped down onto his lap. "This is Thenio Iterune, a first-year enchanting student that Iggy's taken a liking to. And after meeting him, I can understand why. He's...quite interesting."

"Oh? If you're saying that, he must really be something." The man looked at Thenio appraisingly, causing him to fidget nervously in his seat. "I'm Teselin Rhimari. I teach in the necromancy department. And that kid over there is my apprentice, Bauto. Ariom was one of my students back when he attended the academy, and we still work together from time to time." He glanced at Ariom. "So what exactly was it you wanted to check on?"

"Thenio's been having a lot of trouble with acute magic instability. Much more than he should, considering his age and experience. And it's not due to lack of effort on his part—his magic circuit shows clear signs of overtraining. I have an idea of what the problem might be, but I'm not entirely sure. I brought him here in order to confirm my suspicions."

Professor Rhimari looked a bit awkward. "Well, I'm sorry to hear he's been having a hard time. And of course I'll help if I can. But I'm not exactly sure what you're expecting. I study affinities, remember? I don't know nearly as much about magic instability as you do."

"I know that," Ariom said evenly. "I want you to test his affinity."

"He was tested when he first came to the academy, wasn't he?"

"He was. But the result was wrong. He says he tested as a water affinity, but he's definitely not."

Oh. Apparently Ariom could see magic affinities, after all. Though Thenio wasn't sure why he hadn't just said that in the first place. Why beat around the bush?

The professor also looked a little puzzled, but he shrugged and turned to Bauto, who had finished whatever he was working on and come over to listen to the conversation. "Well, all right. Go ahead and test him."

The apprentice nodded and went over to get something from a nearby shelf. He brought back a small rectangular box that had a cylindrical crystal sticking out of one end. Thenio recognized it as an affinity tester. Or at least that's what they were usually called. The proper name was 'magic power frequency profile analyzer,' but that was quite a mouthful. He didn't know all the details of how they worked, but he knew they identified the power frequencies present in a person's magic. Everyone's magic was slightly different, but there were common patterns that most people followed. These patterns were what determined a person’s affinity, or what types of magic were easiest for them to use.

"Okay, now just hold onto the crystal and infuse a little of your magic power into it," Bauto said, holding the tester out toward Thenio. "I'll tell you when to stop."

Thenio took hold of the crystal and cautiously pushed a small amount of magic into it. Fortunately, his power was much more cooperative than it had been during scribing class. He didn't even want to know how much it would cost to replace that device if he accidentally blew it up....

"That's enough." When Thenio released the crystal, Bauto pulled the tester back and examined the display on the side for a moment. "Looks like...swamp affinity."

Swamp? Well, Thenio would be thrilled if that were really the case. Swamp was a fairly rare combination type affinity, and it was generally considered the best affinity for alchemists to have. But that was why it was hard to believe. Hadn't he had extra trouble controlling his magic when he tried to do alchemy? That didn't seem to fit....

"You said you tested as water before, right?" Bauto went on. "You probably have a really strong water primary. The tester they used on you could have read it wrong if it wasn't calibrated quite right."

Professor Rhimari frowned a little but nodded. "Yes...that's possible. It's unusual for them to make a mistake like that, but I've seen it happen before." He looked at Ariom. "Does that answer your question?"

But Ariom shook his head. "No. Test him again."

"Huh?" Bauto stared at Ariom with a bemused expression. "I'm sure I didn't do anything wrong just now...." He turned to his mentor for confirmation.

The professor was giving Ariom a searching look. But after a moment, he turned and nodded at his apprentice. "He must have something in mind. Do it again."

Thenio and Bauto exchanged confused looks, but they obediently repeated the testing process.

This time, though, Bauto's eyebrows shot up in surprise when he looked at the display. "What? Lightning affinity? How...?" He looked up at the others, baffled, and then back at the tester. "Is this thing broken?"

Professor Rhimari stood up and came around the desk. "Let me see it."

Bauto handed him the device. The professor examined it for a moment, frowning deeply, and then looked at Ariom, obviously asking for an explanation.

"Test him again." Ariom didn't seem at all surprised by the unexpected test result.

Professor Rhimari raised an eyebrow at him. Then he turned the affinity tester over and slid off the back panel. He fiddled with the insides of the device for a minute, then let out a short sigh. "Calibration looks fine." He put the panel back in place and held the tester out to Thenio. "Okay, try it again."

Thenio injected his magic power into the device for a third time. Then there was a tense silence as the professor stared at the results.

"Sandstorm," he said flatly. "Okay. Either this is a prank, and the kid is a null affinity with exceptionally good control, or...." He trailed off.

"You're going to want to do a blood analysis," Ariom said quietly.

The professor nodded. "Yeah. It looks that way." He turned to Bauto. "Get me a test kit, will you?"

Bauto went to a cabinet on one side of the room. There was a magic lock panel on the front of it, and the apprentice placed his hand on it for a couple of seconds before pulling the door open. He rummaged around inside the cabinet for a minute and then came back carrying several items on a small metal tray, which he held out toward Professor Rhimari.

"You probably haven't had a blood magic analysis done before, have you?" the professor asked, picking up what looked like a scalpel from the tray.

Thenio shook his head.

"It's a more advanced kind of magic affinity test. It's mostly used for research purposes, since the required equipment and materials are too expensive for large-scale use, and the standard test is enough for most people's needs. We're going to put some of your blood on this special crystal." He picked up a palm-sized crystal slab from the tray and held it up for Thenio to see. "Then we'll put it into a machine that can analyze your blood to give us a detailed look at your magic profile. All right? Now, just give me your hand for a moment. Don't worry—this has a numbing enchantment on it, so it won't hurt."

This must be where the 'crystal guy' title had come from, Thenio mused as he watched Professor Rhimari use the scalpel to make a small cut on one of his fingers, which he then held against the crystal. Thenio wasn't sure what it was made out of, but it obviously wasn't an ordinary crystal, because it absorbed the blood like a sponge, turning from white to a light red color. When it had apparently absorbed enough, the professor set the crystal back on the tray and picked up a small bandage, which he wrapped around Thenio's finger with a well-practiced motion.

"This has some healing salve on it, so your finger should be completely healed up within an hour or so." Professor Rhimari picked the crystal slab back up. "All right. Now let's see exactly what we're dealing with here."

He took the crystal over to one of the complicated-looking machines standing around the room and put it on a tray sticking out of the center. Then he pushed the tray into the machine and flipped a switch. The machine hummed for a minute or two and then went quiet again. A single sheet of paper slid out of a slot on the top. Thenio couldn't see it well from where he was sitting, but there seemed to be some kind of diagram printed on it.

Professor Rhimari picked up the piece of paper and looked at it.

And kept looking at it.

There was a long silence. The rest of them waited awkwardly while the professor simply stared at the sheet of paper, seemingly frozen in place. Thenio wasn't even sure he was still breathing.

"Hey, what is it?" Bauto finally asked, breaking the silence. "Is he some type of crazy morph or something?"

The professor finally moved in response to that, but he still didn't say anything. He simply took the paper over to another machine that Thenio recognized as a projection device. He set the paper on it and turned the device on. A large copy of the printout was displayed onto the wall for all of them to see.

"What is that?" Bauto asked, staring at the image with an expression of consternation.

That's what Thenio wanted to ask. He had no idea what he was looking at. The projected image was a sort of erratic starburst pattern, like a messily drawn sunflower, with some regular grid marks printed in different colors around the edge. His best guess was that it was a circular graph of some kind, but he wasn't sure exactly what it was supposed to represent.

But it would have been normal for him to ask what it was. The fact that the one asking was Bauto, an apprentice who worked in a magic affinity lab, wasn't at all comforting.

"What's with that pattern? I've never seen anything like that before." Bauto went on, adding to Thenio's unease. He turned to the professor. "Do you know what that is?"

Professor Rhimari didn't answer. He was still staring at the pattern, his brow deeply furrowed. After a moment, he went to a bookshelf that was standing against the wall behind his desk and pulled out a large book. He flipped through it briefly, then came to a stop as he apparently found what he was looking for.

He stared at the book for a minute, then looked back at the pattern on the wall. Then back at the book. Then the pattern.

Finally, he looked at Ariom. "You already know what this is, don't you?"

Ariom nodded, his expression somber. "I was hoping I was wrong.... But yes, based on Iggy's description of Thenio's magic and the research I did, this is the profile pattern I was expecting to see."

"What's wrong?" Thenio looked between the two grim-faced men, a knot of tension forming in his stomach. "What kind of affinity is that? Is there something the matter with it?"

Professor Rhimari sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his face. "Seriously, Ariom, I get that you weren't sure, but...you could have warned me, you know? I really wasn't prepared for something like this." He shook his head and looked at Thenio. "How much do you know about magic affinities?"

"Well, I know the basics. I read some books on affinities when I was studying for the academy entrance exams."

"Good. Then you know what morphs are? And the difference between spontaneous and conditional morphs?"

"Morphs are affinities that just pop up, rather than being inherited." Thenio went into student recitation mode, partly as an automatic response to a professor asking a question and partly because it soothed his nerves a little to focus on memorized facts. "Spontaneous morphs are just random mutations. They're extremely rare but can usually be passed on to future generations. Most variant and arcane type affinities started as spontaneous morphs. Conditional morphs occur due to the influence of specific circumstances. They happen more frequently but are rarer overall because they usually aren't hereditary."

"Very good." The professor nodded approvingly. The detour into an academic discussion seemed to calm him down a bit, too. Maybe that was the real reason he'd brought up the topic. "What we have here is a conditional morph. Or at least it's assumed to be, since we don't know what causes it, but we do have records of it reoccurring a few times in the past several centuries. There aren't any records of it from before the Great War, but they may have just been lost.... Well, in any case, it's a very rare conditional morph, but it's also fairly well known on account of its...ah...distinctive properties." He hesitated, then took a deep breath and pointed at the projection. "This is a chaos affinity."

"Chaos affinity?!" Bauto was visibly excited. "Are you serious? I can't believe it. I never thought I'd meet a living chaos morph!"

Professor Rhimari gave him a look of disgust. "What are you getting excited about, you insensitive idiot?"

"What?" the apprentice asked, aggrieved. "What's wrong with being excited? It's a researcher's dream to find such a rare affinity, isn't it?"

"Maybe so. But think about it a little, will you? Think about exactly what you just said."

Bauto looked confused. "Huh? All I said was that it's a researcher's dream to see such a rare magic type. And that I never thought I'd meet a living—" He suddenly broke off. "Oh." His face went pale. He swallowed hard and turned stiffly to look at Thenio. "I'm so sorry. I really wasn't thinking...."

"What...?" Thenio was seriously alarmed now. He whipped his head back and forth to look at the grave faces surrounding him. Even Iggy was curled up into a subdued little ball, ears lowered. "What's wrong? Why is everyone...?"

The professor gave another heavy sigh. "There have been about half a dozen confirmed cases of chaos affinity since the Great War, along with a few more suspected ones. Almost all of those...were identified via autopsy." He gave Thenio a complicated look, and his voice became a little softer. "Like I said, there aren't any records from before the war. And the few we do have aren't really a large enough sample to make accurate predictions...but...." He paused and seemed to steel himself. "All the chaos magic users we currently know of have died from injuries caused by magic explosions, self-induced as the result of severe magic instability. The average life expectancy...based on the numbers we have available...is fourteen years. The oldest chaos morph on record...died at the age of nineteen."

Average of fourteen...maximum of nineteen...his current age was...sixteen.

At that point, Thenio's mind went blank and refused to process the numbers any further.