"So, the list for today." I begin. We've spent the last half hour trying to prioritize our needs and have whittled it down to a few priority tasks in no particular order:

  Finding Olly a reliable essence source.

  Finding me a doctor able to help me with my wing.

  Buying a new bed for Olly and I(each).

  Stocking up on food and fresh ingredients.

  "Don't forget! I need to go meet the scholar soon, and he might be able to help Olly!"

  "I know, Lilly, this is the today-list. When we all get back tonight we'll work on addressing everything. I'll make a more involved list. Priorities, if anything is time-critical, what should give us the largest benef—"

  "Fine! I get it, Ayre! You're gonna make a list. I know what it means!" A smile splits my lips — a pleased, predatory thing. I love to do this to Lilly. She's very spontaneous, and so am I, but making lists ensures everything gets done. Lilly inevitably forgets half of her plans whenever she discovers a new thing to get excited about. It also needles her — the most important part. "Okay Olly. Let's leave Ms. Boring-Organized-Perfect-Lists to her side of things. We're going shopping. I've always wanted to go shopping in a real market! The couple times I've done it in the Court of Craft and Coin doesn't count."

  We hadn't discussed who was going with who — or if we were actually splitting up — something Olly immediately starts to point out, but she drags him bodily out of the building, leaving me smiling in their wake. "You both stay safe!"

  They'll be far more subtle going together, anyways, and I'll be hassled less for wanting to do things my way. No more complaints about "getting lost". I've never gotten lost.

  So, my personal list, then.

  I have about ten doctors to visit and see if they know anything about helping me — basically needing a Ignia specialized doctor. Which is probably going to be hard since most lifegiving compound essences like Victus or Vigora are based on Hydrus, Terra, and Aero. My reading has told me that Ignia is generally viewed as being harmful for doctors to use or rely on since it makes for brash mindsets.

  Which, frankly, I find offensive. I'm made solely and entirely of Ignia and I'm not remotely brash.

  Three knocks ring out from the front door — something that immediately sets me on edge until I remind myself that we're in a settlement not out in the woods where any noise out of the norm means something, probably something dangerous, is nearby.

  How should I answer the door?

  I never considered that there might be a a right way to do this sort of thing. So…

  I walk over and swing it wide in one motion, "Can I help yo— Ah, Hi, Maxi, sorry."

  The elder lupin gives me a genial smile as he shifts around in a comfortable-looking jacket inscribed with Ignia runes around the fringes and a woven cap that has additional material for his pointy ears to tuck into. "I thought I'd try to stop by today but was running a little late. Sorry for not making it here earlier. I think I saw the other two heading off together, so I'm glad I caught you."

  "Honestly, I'm glad you showed up when you did, I was about to leave, too. We all forgot! Please come in." My hair rasps like foil as I run my hand through it, more than a little embarrassed by the near-miss. "We don't have much yet — the others are going out to fix that — but I can fix you some tea if you'd like?"

  "I'd love that."

  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

  After a couple minutes of searching, I figure out how to run water from the kitchen…thing. It only takes some very awkward questions and answers. Luckily Maxi takes it all in stride and doesn't ask after my lack of knowledge.

  "So, this conversation is a good bit less scripted and more casual by nature. And I'm well rested and not five minutes from going home. So I might even seem to have a personality — just forewarning!" As we've talked, Maxi has shown that he's quite lively and very seldom not smiling. It de-ages him probably thirty years, too, lighting up his steel-gray eyes.

  "I certainly won't mind that. Where do you want to start? I have nothing but time today since I passed off the hard work onto the others." I twist the kitchen chair ninety degrees to sit. The back is too tall to lean over, and it's solid, so I would need to sit on the lip to hope to fit my tail behind myself. Even sideway though, my hips and shoulders are too broad to be comfortable even before considering my wings, so I wind up fidgeting around a lot.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Well, the simplest place to start is with your interests. As soon as you are ready, I'd like to see about finding you work or an organization you can get involved with in some capacity. We've always found that people recover quicker when they have something to stabilize their routines, even if it's only something one day a week for a few hours. Work is good because it lets you take control of your money situation — I know how it feels to pay for things with the chits, I've been there myself — but even something as simple as a reading club or an exercise group will do to help you start meeting people and getting set up for success."

  I listen attentively — it's the least I can do given that he's showing himself as nothing but helpful. "Well, in terms of interests… I guess I enjoy reading. I used to read a lot but I eventually ran out of books and I can only reread something two or three times before I commit most of it to memory — so rereads do very little for me. Otherwise… I enjoy fishing, I guess? Is that a hobby or interest? I always did it to feed myself. There's fighting too. I love to spar and train. Oh, and animals? I made friends with a lot of woodland critters growing up."

  His slightly clawed fingers scratch at his well-kept beard in thought. "Well, there's reading clubs, but being situated where we are there's not much in the way of fishing or animals around. Lots of pets around but nothing like…woodland critters. Maybe ranch work? Do you like cattle? Behemoths?"

  "I know about the idea of ranches, but I've never seen one. Same answer regarding farm animals, really."

  "Then we'll put that on the back burner. You like fighting?"

  "Definitely. I'm not super experienced with fighting people — where I grew up there were no people, but plenty of monsters and aggressive beasts. Is your tea getting cold?" His latest sip showed a bit of distaste for a moment, and mine would surely be cold too if I wasn't regularly blowing on it to keep it hot.

  "It is, but it's no problem."

  "Give it here for a moment. How hot do you prefer your tea to stay? I like mine at a temperature that would probably be scalding, so I don't want to go to my default."

  He looks thoughtful for a moment. "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being "literally boiling", I think I would normally land at around a seven, especially this time of year when it's so cold out. Which reminds me, also, the house is chilly, odds are good some of the heating runes are burned out. I can see about getting someone sent up here to take a look at the house to get it fixed up for you all?"

  "I would definitely appreciate that. I've never done any enchanting of any kind." I take his cup, holding it on both hands. Drawing in a slow breath and trying to imagine the exact degree of heat he's meaning, I hold the breath for a few moments to force Ignia into it and give it the proper intentions. A few moments later, the room warms fractionally as I exhale — my breath gathering around the bottom of the mug as gentle flames lick up the side of the cup. Pointedly, and per my intent, they avoid the handle of the cup.

  If I could manage to use the other aspects of Ignia — literally anything other than fire — I could do this far more easily by just breathing heat into the cup, but… I still haven't quite figured that out yet. And with nobody to teach me, it's likely to be a lot of slow, awkward experimentation…

  As I muse internally and watch my flames lick at the cup, I realize that he's staring at them, too. Which… I just breathed fire in front of a stranger. Something obviously weird because the Breath of Khana is unique to my kind.

  Right.

  Good job, me. Very subtle.

  "This might be an ignorant question, so please believe me when I say that I mean nothing ill and have no assumptions tied to it. Are you a dragon, like Bruce noted?" His eyes never leave the flames even as I pass it to him and demonstrate that the flames won't burn him by passing my hand through them and holding it there for a moment.

  "Yes." I answer simply. I don't want to volunteer much. As much as I'm not trying to hide myself, I also don't want to invite problems.

  "I grew up on stories of dragons a long time ago. Well, the elemental serpents at large. I had an uncle who claimed to have met a leviathan when he was a young boy — purportedly saved him from drowning in the sea near Port Orest. I was always deeply saddened to hear that people who had done so much good felt the need to leave society like they seemed to. I know I'm only one person, but I'm glad to see you back, even in these circumstances."

  The words hit me way harder than I would have expected they would. Hearing of others like me, people having positive opinions of them, missing them, and being glad I'm back in their stead chokes me up almost immediately against all of my efforts to hold it back. Growing up hearing nothing but warnings from Lilly and the speculations from the couple books I had on the subject, set me up to need to be guarded in society. This blasts striaght through those guarded walls

  "Oh, dear. Ayre, I'm sorry. I should have realized that could be insensitive." He starts to rise, but I gesture for him to stay as I compose myself.

  "It's not something I'm comfortable going into detail about yet, but… I'm not sad. Don't apologize, please. I'm thrilled to hear it from someone who isn't one of the other two whole entire people I know." I wave it off, willing some essence to my eyes to boil off some of the moisture atop my scales to dry myself back to looking presentable and in control. "You said something about fighting? It's what I'm best at. That and maybe handicrafts. I built my own cabin when I was a kid, but it wasn't exactly impressive, so fighting would probably be at the top of my list in terms of skills and hobbies."

  He definitely recognizes the deflection — he's obviously someone who's too empathetic and aware to not — but carries it on gracefully. "How are you about putting on a show?"

  "Uh, I like to add in unnecessary flourishes when I'm I'm training, I guess?" It's a bizarre question. I wouldn't really associate fighting with "A show".

  "How are you with people watching you do things? Cheering your name, that sort of thing?"

  "I've never really experienced it before, but people watching me do things and enjoying it sounds nice. Lilly used to watch me train and she always seemed to like it."

  "Then, Ayre, I think I might have an option for you. Have you ever heard of show-fighting?"