Sitting in a rented-out hotel ballroom by myself, sipping on a cup of coffee I was too nervous to taste, unable to do anything besides watch the clock tick, was not an enjoyable experience. It was, however, what I felt compelled to do Friday morning. That was the date we had set for the initial meetings with the other dragons, as a collective, so that any subsequent, individual meetings could be handled over the weekend or early next week. I didn’t need the coffee — I had slept beside all of my mates despite it being a weeknight last night — and I didn’t think there was a chance I would’ve enjoyed it even if I had tasted it — it was from the hotel lobby, not brewed with Sam’s magic — but sitting here and doing nothing felt even more wrong than sipping a drink I didn’t want or need.

  I had come alone, at first, just as a precaution. Beth had frowned at me all morning. Different parts of her had wanted to argue in two very distinct directions — the first was that she didn’t think life would be worth living if the future she had recently come to know was taken from her, so there was no risk to me that she wouldn’t undertake herself for us. The second was that she was nigh invulnerable nowadays and, therefore, counterintuitively, at even less risk of a draconic outburst than I was.

  She was somewhat right. Physically, at least, she was less vulnerable. But there was no reason to expose her to the dragons until I knew things would be okay. I didn’t want her exposed emotionally to being needled like Sam when Antonin tested me. At least then, as unhappy as I came to be about it, there was a purpose I could identify at the time. More importantly, I had already met Antonin and gotten familiar with his gruff, blunt exterior. I hadn’t ever experienced the dragons before. I didn’t know how they would react to me alone, or if they would immediately begin probing Beth and Sam and Zoey for weaknesses. Meeting them alone was a risk, but it was calculated. The calculation was that if I got hurt, it was fine. I’d recover.

  If someone hurt them, I would cause an international incident.

  Still, that calculation left me anxiously sitting in a massive hall in one of twenty chairs around a table probably too large for anywhere reasonable but still too small to fill the ballroom’s expanse, sipping a lukewarm cup of bland coffee. There was a table on the far side of the wall where the hotel had put a variety of breakfast foods in cheap aluminum trays over warming plates. We had catered lunch from a place Zoey enjoyed ordering from (a steakhouse, to all of our surprise), but left breakfast to the hotel. I had to wonder if anything would get eaten or if the catering would be just a waste. I spent a minute hemming and hawing about calling Zenya and asking her to find out if there was a foodbank or homeless shelter nearby that would take already prepared food so we wouldn’t just throw it out when none of the dragons needed to eat. It wasn’t a massive amount, but just sitting here staring at it, fretting over it to avoid my worries about the dragons, I didn’t like the idea of it going to waste.

  I was rattled from my thoughts as a slender man in a well-fitted suit knocked cautiously on one of the enchanted wooden doors about fifteen minutes before we were scheduled to start. When I looked up and blinked in a lack of recognition, he spoke. “Hello. James, I presume?”

  “Yeah, I’m James. I’m guessing you’re Clement,” I wagered. Given that he was male, it was 50/50. Given that he was white, I was reasonably confident. Amusingly, he smelled calm, but not genuinely calm. He smelled like Zoey did when she was locked in — holding herself at a calm state rather than being truly, naturally serene.

  Zoey was better at it than he was.

  “That’s me. Say, listen, before we get into the serious stuff today, could you show me your scales?”

  “What?” I replied dimly. “I mean, I suppose. Would like to know why you want to know first, to be fair and all.”

  He swallowed nervously. “To see which of us you match.”

  “Match?”

  “Well, you aren’t my son. I guess it’s possible Eleanor hid you from me, but I really don’t think that’s likely, and the timeline doesn’t add up either way. Arjun hasn’t mingled with magical partners even before the ban — learned his lesson on having powerful children ages ago. The twins don’t do much of anything, one of them literally. It doesn’t make any sense. But you’ve got to be from one of us. Scale color and texture are inherited directly. Unless you’ve got two draconic parents and more than one of us are guilty of your existence, you should match someone identically.”

  “Not sure I like the way you’re phrasing that.”

  He nodded. “Can’t say I’m happy with it, either. I think the conclusion is slightly more important than our feelings, unfortunately. Would be a lot cleaner if any of us were permitted to have children and didn’t have punishments hanging over our heads simply because you exist.”

  “Wait, you’re not allowed to have children? At all?”

  He sighed. “Not with anyone magically inclined, anymore. Even the slight risk of another dragon was too much for them. My marriage with Eleanor has been quite the point of contention among the magical community for quite some time, but since we haven’t had a child in such a long time, our Seat trusts us. At least not to do that.”

  “Would’ve been nice if someone had told me that to begin with,” I grumbled. “Anyway, I have parents. They aren’t dragons. They didn’t know anything about this world. My sister’s as human as they come. Though, I thought I was, too, so I guess I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure none of you are related to me.”

  “Frankly, I’m not sure it matters what you think. You weren’t there at your birth. Not consciously, anyway. Your memories can’t exactly be trusted. Your parents raised you, and I don’t intend to deprive them of that distinction, but you’re clearly a dragon. I can sense you. Strong, proud, young, energetic — though not as hungry as most of us, a bit more caution in you. Shame the only way you could exist is through such a blatant disregard for caution. I need to ask again to see your scales.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d show me yours first, would you?”

  Clement shrugged and rolled up his left sleeve. He held his lean arm out in front of him and shifted, his fingers curling into sharp claws as pale blue scales spread up his arm, almost icy as they reflected the cool artificial light.

  I held my own arm out in return, shifting. Clement’s eyes focused intently on my forearm, where my deep, smokey maroon scales bloomed into existence. His brows furrowed in confusion as my crimson coloring grew undeniable.

  “That’s not possible,” he stammered after a moment.

  “Did tell you my parents weren’t dragons. Guessing I don’t match any of you?”

  “But that’s not possible,” he simply repeated.

  “Yeah, you said that. Yet, I’m standing here in front of you. Clearly, something is possible.”

  Clement looked me over again, frozen, staring at the color of my scales, holding a hand out to point at the smoky edges of each scale. “Your highlighting is dark. Not black, but slate. And the texture you have —” he paused, circling his finger around a single scale that he was targeting for demonstration purposes as he grappled for the word he wanted. Eventually, he abandoned the attempt at being articulate, saying simply, “— isn’t. It isn’t uniform. Each scale is unique, and there’s no pattern in them. It’s a chaotic maelstrom seemingly rejecting anything that could be misconstrued as uniformity. The only connecting feature between your scales is that they have no replicated patterns. The fact that they’re all different is all that unites them.”

  “And that’s strange, I presume,” I replied.

  In response, he held up his arm and allowed me to look more closely. The pale blue of his scales gave way to a pure white outline, like the calm evening sky surrounded by a peaceful cloud. Looking deeper, I could see shallow grooves in his scales that weren’t present in mine — all aligned, all pointing in the same direction across his entire arm.

  “Even were there a way for one of us to have had a red heir — which there isn’t, primary colors only come from primary colors and none of us are red — all of us have light-colored outlines. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a non-patterned set of scales. Granted, the supply has been fixed for so long that I may simply have forgotten that someone I never met so long ago had something like that, but I don’t think so. I don’t know what it means.”

  “So, what’s your conclusion, then?”

  “I came here to see whose head I was going to have to take,” he said with steel in his voice, leaving no doubt that it was truly his intent. “I certainly don’t dislike the others — it helps that we see each other so infrequently — but I was preparing to come to blows with someone. It’s why I asked Eleanor to wait outside. I didn’t know who you’d be, or how you’d react, or who else was going to be in here. The pressure felt like two of us; guess that’s just you. Now, I don’t know what I’m here for. I don’t know what we’re going to do. You’re too young to be anything but one of ours, but you can’t be. All of us will have come here expecting a fight with another dragon, and now there isn’t a fight to be had. Perhaps not Juliana, but I’m unsure of what the rest of us intend to do now. Regardless, I’m assuming no violence is going to break out, at least not this morning. Physically, at a minimum.”

  With that, he pulled out his phone and tapped away for a few seconds, before sliding it back into his pocket and gesturing towards the table. “Shall we sit? I imagine Arjun and Adriana will be along shortly. Somewhat surprised Adriana isn’t here already. She’s usually prompt when we have meetings like this.”

  “Do you have them regularly?”

  “Once or twice a decade, usually. A weekend away somewhere for all of us, which is getting harder with Arjun’s expanding hotelier gig. Has to be sunny, too, or Juliana screeches incessantly for months about it.”

  “I was under the impression that you were more competitors than friends,” I said, unsure how blunt I could be without distorting my point. “Why would you get together?”

  He looked at me for a moment, his eyes hard and his face scrunched up. “We are competitors. But, we’re in a competition against everyone, not just our own group, and we’re no longer in power. If one of them fucks up, including you now, the rest of the world might decide we’re too much risk to be worth permitting to exist. There were only five of us left. If something happened over the next few months that meant that in fifty years, there were only ten Americans left in the world, even if you hated them personally, wouldn’t you attend the get-together? They’re the only ones left who understand what we’ve all gone through. You’re one of us now, and yet, you also aren’t. It isn’t your fault, but in some ways, you’re an outsider even in our collective.”

  Then he waved towards the door, a genuine though reserved smile sprouting on his face as he loudly said, “Darling! Come meet James.”

  Eleanor was even more slender than Clement, which I found surprising. She was also an inch or two shorter than he was, which probably made her a little above average for a woman and him a little below average for a man, at least for nowadays. It was strange to think of the man next to me, wearing a sharp suit and wielding a smartphone in one hand and a styrofoam cup of instant coffee in the other, as someone who had lived when France was a monarchy pre-revolution, but that thought did go some way to explaining why they were so much smaller than I was. At least, that was the conclusion in my mind sitting next to Clement.

  I had assumed, apparently wrongly, that the other dragons would be large humans. Given that I grew the first time I shifted, I had assumed that was normal. Or, perhaps Clement and Eleanor were just so naturally diminutive that even with the dragon’s expansion, they remained around average? Hopefully, seeing the others would answer the question. Although, the sample size might limit any actual conclusion I could draw.

  Eleanor glanced around the room, saw that we were the only two in it, and slowly but purposefully crossed to where we were sitting. Her eyes were hawklike, penetrating and fixated on me as she marched across the ballroom floor, her slight heels clicking sharply with her footfalls.

  “Scales,” she simply demanded, her brown eyes locked to mine, unblinking. Strangely, she smelled more nervous than upset. Granted, that could’ve been a slight misdirection — she could’ve been anxious about the whole situation, or more specifically about marching in to make a demand, and either way, the outcome would be world-altering, in a way.

  “Darling,” Clement interjected, “I told you, he—”

  “I’ll see for myself,” she said icily.

  “You don’t trust him?” I asked calmly. “Haven’t you been together for hundreds of years?”

  “Your existence makes me question the final lines of trust I thought were unshakeable and his claims are too fantastic not to verify with my own eyes.”

  I held my hand up and shifted. She watched sharply as my maroon once again shone through.

  Immediately, her demeanor changed, softening and warming considerably. She caught me off guard by curtseying, leaving her head bowed slightly as she apologized. “Terribly sorry, James. It was not you with whom I should be cross. Seems there’s no one I need to be cross with, but I had to steel myself against the possibility.”

  “I can’t say I understand, not really, but I can sympathize with the position my coming to light has put you all in. Probably not all that different from my own, actually. Racing across the world while being told that everything you knew is a lie.”

  Eleanor lifted her eyes up, meeting mine with vastly different emotions from just the prior moment. “James, I’m sorry. I—”

  “That was a genuine statement, not an unsubtle barb,” I interrupted. “I appreciate the thought, but you didn’t show up one morning to race me across the country without telling me I wasn’t ever going to be allowed home to have an evaluation where I would be killed if I didn’t give the right answers, to leave me in a city I wasn’t familiar with and didn’t know anyone and where everyone looks at me like I’m a ticking time bomb with a clock approaching zero while expecting me to perform miracles and dance to your every fleeting whim just to be permitted my own existence, forget freedom or independence.”

  Clement smirked beside me. “Perhaps less an outsider than I thought.”

  “That’s the dragon experience in a nutshell, is it?”

  Eleanor rocked her head back and forth in indecision as Clement stroked his jawline.

  “It’s gotten better over time,” he offered. “It might be different for you, here. Aisling has never had a dragon; She’ll likely want to keep you and, therefore, might be a bit looser. But, in general, they watch us closely. Keep a tight leash. Give us some toys we’re permitted to play with and keep everything else forbidden. I imagine our Seats will watch us closely in the coming months. None of us knew you weren’t one of ours, but Aisling must’ve. It’s not like our colors are secrets.”

  “Would’ve been nice if someone had told me any of this.”

  “Aye,” he said with a nod, “It would’ve been. We keep in contact with each other — some more politely than others — because the information we’re all allowed about the world is restricted in slightly different ways. I heard about you before Arjun made the call, but I had only been informed by one source at that time. Making the announcement could’ve outed them as leaking to me. Evidently, his informants were slower but more plentiful. Or he doesn’t care. Hard to tell with him. Regardless, we aren’t given everything. Some knowledge we have to go and take.”

  “Not sure I like the idea of having informants.”

  “Contacts, then. Acquaintances. Like-minded individuals. Takes a special kind to work with a dragon, but it’s usually easy to reward them. Mana goes a long way. Most of your body should be full of it unless you’re actively spending it, and in that case, you should have gotten some kind of value out of it. Scales, saliva, blood — any little part of you is so rare that a partner will treasure it as payment. Unless you flood the market. Then we’ll come knock you around a bit for ruining our gigs.”

  “And what lies are the star-crossed lovers feeding the boy?” came booming from the door as soon as Clement finished his elaboration. A dark-skinned man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of khaki shorts stood proudly in the doorway, a broad, smug smile on his face.

  He had what appeared to be a cigar in his mouth, though it was unlit. That seemed strange to me — at best, a dragon would be able to taste the cigar and could have formed the habit back when it was more ubiquitous, sure, but he wouldn’t get any of the benefits of the nicotine (or any of the downsides, either). Then I realized it wasn’t even lit, which went some way to explaining why he was permitted to have it in the hotel at all.

  My initial thought was that, as a dragon, he had made it appear unlit but was holding a smoldering ember in the center of it or had shrouded it in an illusion. Doing that would make it seem as though it was unlit to any casual observer while giving him the familiar sensation, the obvious conclusion from seeing it in his mouth.

  When I reached out magically to try and sense what was going on, I was completely surprised by something that made immediate sense when I recognized it for what it was. It clearly wasn’t a regular cigar. In fact, it wasn’t really a cigar at all. The wrapping and an eighth of an inch at the end were made to appear like a cigar, but the inside was a solid stem of a gold-silver alloy. It wasn’t a cigar — it was a precious metal chew toy for a dragon, a constant source of material wealth that the newcomer could carry without drawing attention to the fact that he was carrying several thousand dollars worth of metal by his mouth.

  “Why, just that your resorts are the best in all of the tropics, of course,” Clement replied, drawing me back to reality.

  Arjun, the only other male dragon, shook his finger in response, but his smile never faded. “That’s not a lie, Clem. Depending on how you define best, my properties might fit your criteria. Granted, that isn’t my goal. I don’t want people who need the best to come around my parts.”

  He strode over towards the three of us, Eleanor finally taking a seat at the same time as he did. His smell mixed with the others — Clement had passed into genuinely relaxed from his initially manufactured state, Eleanor had faded into mild regret from her initial harsh nervousness, and Arjun smelled like he just couldn’t give a fuck. I intuited that he was well aware that I wasn’t his, but, in contrast to Clement and Eleanor who were worried about the consequences and potential fallout, he was more willing to allow the entire experience to devolve into entertainment. He was, as far as I was aware, the oldest person I had ever interacted with. Novel experiences were probably getting hard to come by.

  “Well, spit it out. Whose is he?” Arjun asked.

  “No one’s,” Eleanor responded.

  Arjun raised an eyebrow, then wobbled his head and shrugged. “No one’s? Makes the most sense and the least sense at the same time.”

  “You don’t want to see?” I asked.

  He shrugged again, waving his hand in dismissal. “The lovers did and aren’t bickering between themselves or plotting one of the sisters’ demise. Seems like they’re telling the truth. If you were just theirs together, I wouldn’t have heard you were here. Their reactions make sense. Adriana will be along at some point, and she’ll want to see. I’ll get my fill then, and afterward, we can all go home.”

  “You aren’t worried about how he came to exist without being any of ours?” Clement asked.

  Arjun scoffed. “I’m intrigued, Clem, but it isn’t my mess to take care of and, if it wasn’t any of you, I don’t even have to worry about my Seat asking why I allowed it to happen as though I have any control over any of you simply because I’m the eldest. Boy’s life is the boy’s problem. Someone sired him. If it wasn’t one of you by accident, I don’t know who it could’ve been, but it was probably done with a bit more care than your average child. Takes a lot of effort with two dragons, thankfully. So, with no dragons involved? Curious, indeed. Not my monkeys, not my circus, not my egg without a chicken involved in its existence to figure out.”

  “People are going to ask questions of us,” Eleanor replied. “Assume he’s one of ours.”

  “Course the provincials will. But Aisling knew he wasn’t, or we would’ve been summoned here in chains, not allowed to travel here on vacation for a meeting on our own time. In hindsight, it was the only thing that made sense, but it wasn’t something that could’ve happened, so I didn’t consider it seriously. Just imagined the Seats were giving us a chance to clean up our own messes. But, who cares what the provincials think? They were going to run their mouths anyway. We’re dragons. They hate us for things we didn’t do that they didn’t live through. Most of them, anyway. If the Seats aren’t moving against us because they know we’re not responsible, what changes? Someone who hated you already says another mean thing on FaeBook that you can’t read? Someone who didn’t want your money in their company even though they were drowning in debt continues refusing your takeover bids?”

  “Hmm,” Clement mused. “You were prepared for this.”

  “I had a thought on the plane that it was strange I was allowed to travel if the Seats collectively thought one of us had breached their edicts. I figured they had enough on their plates and were simply allowing us to clean it up because anything else didn’t make sense. I wasn’t prepared for this, but I did have a fleeting fantasy where it wasn’t my problem. At least, that’s how I felt when I thought of it. Felt as though I was conjuring ideas that would minimize my responsibility simply to soothe my own mind. Turns out it’s the truth.”

  “You aren’t concerned about how he exists, then?” Clement pressed.

  Arjun laughed. “Didn’t you hear me a minute ago, Clem? Not my monkeys, not my circus, not my hatchling. I’d love to know, sure. I doubt the boy knows, and if he does, I doubt he’ll be sharing. No, if he’s genuinely not any of ours and the consequences of his mere existence aren’t going to come down on our heads, I don’t much care. Teach him the rules we’ve established so that none of his future actions can be put on us, and then enjoy a few days in the colonies. Pause my work in Hawaii, I suppose.”

  “Colonies?” I asked. It wasn’t the most significant question I wanted to ask, but it felt like it was the easiest.

  “The States, dear,” Eleanor whispered back. “Despite not getting involved with the British government until after you forcibly took independence from them, he still fancies calling you colonies.”

  “You — well, the French, Dutch, and Germans with a bit of help from you — kicked them out, and then they showed up with renewed purpose in my homeland. Was good for me personally. We could debate the impact on the country, but let’s leave that for another day and simply say there is good reason why both your land and mine eventually ended up self-governing, but that we both benefit nowadays from having easy access to English,” Arjun said with a degree of finality.

  “I guess I’m just a little confused now,” I admitted. “I figured you all had a reason for coming, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why. I guess I knew I wasn’t any of yours — or, at least, that didn’t cross my mind as a possibility. I guess it was possible and I didn’t know any better, but I didn’t think about it. So I spent the last two weeks trying to dig into everything I could find about all of you, which was basically fucking nothing, to try and understand why you were all racing here to see me. What are these rules you’ve written? Why would my breaking them be a problem for you? Why are any of you here? I don’t want to be dismissive, but couldn’t this entire thing just have been a phone call? Couldn’t one of you have just asked for a picture of me? Fuck, I posted a picture of my wings publicly on FaeBook months ago. Did none of you go and check that before coming here? I find that exceptionally hard to believe, and I’m a little sensitive to feeling like I’m a piece on someone else’s chessboard at the moment.”

  No one responded for several seconds.

  The silence was interrupted by a sheepish knock on the door. A tan woman in a business suit held her hand in the air, leaving it to linger after she knocked, her eyes touching each of us as she took in the scene. She recognized the others, which made who I was easy to conclude.

  “Sorry, I’m late,” she said as she stepped in, closing the door behind her. “I tried to get Jules up to be here, but she wouldn’t budge, and I lost track of time. I imagine that, since you’re not ambushing me, it’s not actually a problem that she’s not here.”

  “Come, Adriana, sit, join us; there’s much to discuss, and all the better we get to it before your sister inevitably drags us to a halt with demands to move outside or to have chocolates brought to her or some other inane flight of fancy,” Arjun stated, not moving his eyes from me.

  “Why would you come expecting an ambush?” I asked.

  Adriana crossed the room gracefully before sitting across the table from me. “I knew you weren’t mine. I didn’t think Juliana would ever entertain a male long enough to procreate, and I didn’t see any evidence that you were hers, but it was possible. If you were one of ours, it would be challenging to tell which one without us here. So, ambush, catching one of us to figure out who was guilty.”

  “No, I meant, ‘Why would you come here if you thought an ambush was what awaited you?’” I reiterated.

  “I didn’t think it was likely. Just possible.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I shrugged, still not understanding her motivations. “That just leads me right back to my previous point, though. Why are any of you here? Why couldn’t this have been a group chat over FaeBook? Surely, this world’s caught up with video streaming technology. If you just needed a glance at my scales —” I held my hand up as I spoke, letting them form freely on my arm. “— the picture I posted should’ve sufficed.”

  Arjun was the first to respond several seconds later, despite both he and Adriana being enraptured by the plating on my arm. “You have a FaeBook account, James?”

  “Yeah. Caused me a headache when I first got here because I took a few days to adjust my settings. Didn’t even look at it. One of my childhood friends got really hurt that I didn’t accept her friend request in a timely manner, but I didn’t even know it existed. Then, I got to sort through a thousand requests for all kinds of crazy things. Body parts, blood, relations — all kinds of stuff I was not even a little prepared to handle a week after discovering magic was a thing that existed. I put all of those notifications to private requests only and have a PA handling them now, basically just rejecting everything and saying I’m not prepared to make any deals before I establish myself.”

  “But, your seat gave you access?” Clement asked. “And knows you could be entertaining offers from the magical world at large?”

  “Yeah, why?” I asked, looking at everyone staring at me like I had grown wings and a tail. Eleanor and Adriana smelled nervous, while Arjun and Clement held their nerves slightly better. Clement again felt forced and artificially calm while Arjun moved from detached disinterest to mildly engaged.

  Arjun cleared his throat. “James, none of us have been granted access. Our Seats have decided that we shouldn’t be easily accessible. One of our guidelines is to stay as far removed from the magical world as possible. Some interaction is inevitable, but they prefer us to be isolated and distant. We make deals like the ones you mentioned, but it’s to barter our bodily resources for things that are otherwise beyond our reach and handled in person. Saliva for raw gemstones, energy charging for mana construction, and so on.”

  “Jules has a pirated connection,” Adriana added. “Talked to the Seat about it once. They knew, but since she was only using it to watch, uh, content, and not actually interacting with anyone, they let it slide. Told me they’d clamp down on it if she tried to actually use it. Since she hasn’t bitched about her access being cut off, I’m assuming she’s followed their rules.”

  “I had two different people who have been in this world before I was introduced to it look over my account at different times,” I continued hesitantly. “Neither of them seemed to think it weird — either me having access in the first place, or that it was any different from their access. Now, one of those people might not have told me if something was strange because I didn’t ask her to explicitly, but the other a thousand percent would’ve. The other yelled at me because I didn’t accept her request in a day.”

  “You’re saying Aisling simply gave you a way to be contacted by anyone in the world?” Eleanor repeated.

  “Do you want to look?” I replied, exasperated. “I have it on my phone now, too, just because Sam keeps sending me memes and selfies of her and Beth when they go to the gym.”

  All of the dragons present stared at me with blank faces. Arjun broke the silence by saying, “James, we wouldn’t know what we were looking at. We’ve been intentionally excluded. You haven’t. That’s a bigger concern for me than who sired you. I want to know why Aisling has decided to treat you like any other member of her territory.”

  I scratched my head. “I wouldn’t exactly say like any other member, given the, you know, dragging me across the country on a moment’s notice to personally interrogate me situation. Or the paying me to sit pretty nearby and be docile situation. Her words, and actions to be fair, seem to imply that at some point in the future, I’ll be a useful commodity for her. She seems to think that I’ll turn into a force multiplier for her, as though my mere presence will profit the entire region.”

  Clement waved his hand. “Obviously, you’re not the same as a normal man with a touch of magic. You are a dragon. But you’ve been introduced to the magical world, not excluded from it.”

  “How could I have been excluded from it?” I asked.

  “We have been, dear,” Eleanor replied softly. “We’ve been pushed out of any arcane circle we used to participate in and quietly hid in the attic, stored away where no one else can see us and we can’t get into trouble.”

  I shook my head. “No, I mean — how could they have dragged me across the country because I was illuminating their energy readers from miles away, interrogating me along the way and telling me I was this thing out of a fantasy movie and that this entire hidden world existed just beneath the veneer of civilization I was used to, and then not elaborate any further? If they truly believe you, and therefore me as well, are capable of horrible things, surely leaving it there would’ve been impossible.”

  “I’m not sure,” Adrianna interjected. “I was young when the rules were enacted. Less ignorant than you were before, obviously, but probably more than you are now. Simply not giving me access to the resources everyone else had was enough to ostracize me. I couldn’t leverage my power without the connections. Some of the sentiment that forced us out has faded, but it’s not like you lived your entire life in our world already, like I had. You didn’t get a schooling in magic from the time you were four. If Aisling had simply said, ‘Here’s a house for now, I’ll talk to you in six months to see how you’re adapting to your new life’ and not given you anything else, would you have known enough to fight for more? Would you know you were missing anything? It doesn’t seem far-fetched to think there is more at play with why you’re being actually integrated than mere social discomfort.”

  “What’re you saying?” I asked.

  “Aisling is playing something,” Clement concluded.

  “Yeah, obviously. She thinks I’m going to help the entire region… somehow. Hasn’t exactly explained how but insisted I would, eventually, were I not deemed too troublesome.”

  Everyone looked to Arjun, who sighed and rolled his eyes.

  “Fine. I’ll tell him. If this comes back to bite us, I was doing it under protest,” he complained.

  “Get on with it, old man,” Clement cajoled him.

  “Dragons used to be the arbiters of the arcane. Our connection and expertise with magic was unmatched. Our mere existence seemed to refine those who lingered around us and the places we lingered in. There were some who abused the sycophants who sought us out and others who let the transactional attention and favor go to their heads. They went too far and used our innate advantage to warp society as though it was outright theirs. Truly, the punishment of banishment from the magical world and ostracization from civilization is the most fitting punishment for the crimes committed, even if it is a double-sided blade.”

  That sure explained some things. Or, maybe it did.

  “Sorry, refine those around you? How does that work?” I asked.

  Clement replied, “Over time, individuals who spent time around you will have their strengths improved. At least, that was the common knowledge. In truth, being around a dragon is restorative. When a partner does something, they use a little of our energy rather than their own. So, they can push themselves harder, recover faster. The mechanism wasn’t exactly understood. Dragons didn’t want it studied rigorously and those that benefited didn’t care how it worked, just that it did.”

  “Dragons could also solve problems that would stifle other magical users. If a naturally occurring arcane flow moved through your domicile, overstimulating you at times and sapping you at others, a dragon would act like a natural capacitor, absorbing the most harmful amounts and releasing it in smaller, safer doses,” Arjun added. “If a spirit’s grove was encroached upon by wild mana, a dragon could snuff out the source and remove it, or reshape it to flow around the space as needed. For all intents and purposes, we are mana, and mana is us. If it’s behaving strangely, we fix it. If there’s too much of it, we absorb it and hold onto it. If someone needs more of it, we share it. At least, that’s what we did. That’s why we’re still here and the others aren’t, even if we’re no longer permitted to participate in those activities except under the most dire of circumstances.”

  “Okay, but what kind of time frame are we talking about? I’ve been living with my partners for two months now — when are they going to make these improvements?”

  Clement shook his head, “It takes time. Lots of time. But, when a 35-year-old who has been consistently, let’s say, 50th percentile D class retests and is found to be 95th percentile without any funny business, they’ve likely spent a few years training around a dragon.”

  “Years, then?” I asked for confirmation. Arjun and Clement nodded.

  So, that wasn’t what Sam and Zoey were experiencing. Sam’s change had happened literally in minutes before our eyes and seemed very much to be a part of the bond, not a part of the typical draconic experience. Zoey’s reverse aging curve could’ve been the result of the dragon, especially since she was consistently training with me. The timeline suggested it wasn’t the primary driver of her miraculous return to form, however.

  It did make me question something else, though. Maybe Aisling didn’t know the specifics, perhaps she did, but ultimately, she had sent Antonin to me. To be around me, typically three times a week. She had sent Zoey to train beside me four times a week. Antonin had gone and brought dozens of other well-established, well-regarded experts to be in my presence. Zoey had brought in specific trainers for self-defense. The only one of my trainers who didn’t seem to be on a timeline that aligned with the years of training needed for me to improve them was Mallory. Of course, if the suspiciously timed delays and repetitive sessions of things I had already done continued, maybe it would. In essence, Aisling had put me in positions where people vital to the realm were around me routinely, using their specialized skill sets to teach me, while I would improve them in the process, given enough time.

  My initial reaction was feeling cheated, but I suppressed that. In the end, there wasn’t anything I could do about it — if I spent enough time with any teacher, they would get better. It wasn’t like it wasn’t a fair exchange, and when I desperately needed instruction, I couldn’t complain that Aisling had given me the best she could offer. Feeling lied to didn’t help, but she had sent me to Antonin specifically to learn about how I worked. Could she have guessed? Maybe. Did she actually know? Probably not. If both of us had known the whole truth that first day, would either of us have acted differently?

  I didn’t think so.

  Knowing the truth would be nice. It returned some of the leverage to me, at least. No longer was I merely leeching time from her most experienced and renowned instructors. If I was potentially returning a benefit to them that they would be unable to access otherwise, I had an entry into a conversation that would lead to greater independence.

  Of course, given what I had just been told, I had to walk a fine line. Independence and exile weren’t so different, and I didn’t actually want exile. I merely wanted to be on a ground that was of my own choosing. Pushing too hard could put me in the same position the other dragons were in.

  “I see,” I eventually replied.

  “It’s not well known anymore,” Arjun continued. “Don’t share it. I can’t force you not to, but I am asking you not to. For your own good and for ours.”

  “What about energy generation?” I brought up the strange behavior that Antonin hadn’t clarified.

  “What do you mean?” Arjun queried.

  “The residence I live in has a mana dynamo. If I’m in the building, it’s charging, not discharging.”

  “Yes, that’s normal,” the senior dragon confirmed. “We absorb energy from everything and slowly secrete it wherever we go.”

  “But where does the energy come from? The advisor I was with was under the impression that it came from the accumulation of material wealth. When I showed a relative disinterest in that behavior, not least of which was because I suddenly could not trust the establishment and I didn’t own my own residence, and yet continued generating a constant flow of juice, he seemed surprised. There have been times when we’ve been training, I’ve been going hard both physically and magically, and yet, half an hour after we’re done, I feel stronger. How does it work?”

  The four dragons shared nervous glances at each other, as if deciding whether or not to tell me the truth, so I continued, “For fucks sake, guys. I get that there are rules about who you share the information with and how it’s dangerous for non-dragons to understand all of it. I get that there’s a bunch of bullshit that happened before my grandparents were born that puts all of you in an uneasy place in society now, but you need to fuckin’ talk to me. If you aren’t going to be clear and upfront with me about what you know and what I can forward, then get the fuck out of here and go home, and I’ll go figure it all out on my own with my own people, probably breaking every single one of your guidelines in the process. You aren’t allowed kids? One of my partners wants one, and I haven’t been told not to, so I’ll be taking advantage of that before I am. You don’t want me sharing how we can refine and improve our retinue? Maybe I’ll ask my flight instructor about moving to two sessions a week, with some nudges about having her flying beside me and catching the updrafts under a dragon’s wing. You know what? Her girlfriend can’t fly. Maybe I’ll get a harness crafted—” Adriana gasped “— and have her ride me while I make them better at everything as thanks for teaching me when you fuckers, who are supposedly the same species as me, wouldn’t even lift a finger without fretting like old women scared of the gossip at church first.”

  Arjun raised his palms. “Peace, James. Peace. Be patient with us. We are old and set in our ways, wrong as they may be right now. You haven’t been one of us before today, and yet you are. It will take us time to think of you as inside our collective.”

  “You know what would help? Trying to act like it.”

  “You speak the truth, but so do I,” he said, trying to calm me. “We will both need to be understanding here. It seems we are cursed to live in interesting times again.”

  “Would be nice to know why they seem to need to revolve around me.”

  “To answer your original question,” Eleanor interrupted, “your advisor wasn’t wrong.”

  “Great, that’s up there in the hall of fame of least helpful non-answers. Probably not inner circle hall, but it earned its years in the league. C’mon, guys, you’ve gotta give me something here.”

  “It’s what you want,” Adrianna spat out. “Wealth works because it’s straightforward and easy to quantify. Getting what you want fills you with energy. Physical objects, experiences, emotions, memories — if you’re accumulating something you want, energy. If you’re not, you’re just absorbing a little from the ambient levels where you are. And a touch from the sun, if you’re getting outside enough.”

  “Thank you,” I replied calmly. “That still doesn’t make any goddamn sense, because—” I stopped.

  The energy values went up when I was around my mates and my family. When I was working hardest in the gym, I was with Zoey. Even flying, I was with a teacher I had socialized with, someone I respected in their field. On the days I had the weirdest rebound into high spirits training with Antonin, at least Sam was there, and sometimes Beth was too.

  “Do relationships work?”

  “Anything you desire, James,” Clement confirmed. “Anything you desire and can quantify progress with.”

  The day I made the hurricane with Sam, it felt like we were different. It felt like we had shed our youth, for good or for ill, and had moved into our new lives. That was undeniably progress. Every day I was around Zoey, I felt like I was getting closer to having her live with us. Every day with Beth and Cynthia felt like a step away from the terrified girl I had met on the street months ago and a step toward a family dynamic we could all be proud of. Every day with Zenya felt like — well, not every day felt like progress with her. There was still a lot to uncover.

  Cynically, that meant I still had a lot of energy to tap into. I felt like retching at that thought. The dragon comforted me, which was surprising, by insisting that I wouldn’t do it for that. He had come around to my thought process, anyway. Our strange bond meant that we should be investing our resources into our mates. We were making them powerful beyond their limits, and they were giving back energy. It was a positive feedback loop. Of course, we might want to add another eventually, but for now, our three and a half were plenty. I questioned the half, and he contested whether I would trust anyone else with Zenya.

  I wanted to reply that if she trusted them, I would trust her, but that was as good as a no, as far as I could tell.

  “Do you find that you have better intuition regarding emotions?” I pivoted. “I feel that, post-awakening or however I should phrase it, I have a sense about how almost everyone feels when interacting with me.” I had to say something to ask my question, but I didn’t want to give away that I could truly intuit significant degrees of information just from my sense of smell. Or, I thought it was smell. It felt like smell. I hadn’t actually tried covering my mouth and nose or filling them with perfume or something to test if it was actually smell, so it could’ve been something else.

  Clement and Eleanor shared glances, but before I could roll my eyes again, Eleanor responded.

  “It depends, James. With weres and spirits, there’s a substantial amount of non-verbal communication between our dragon and their non-human halves.”

  I shook my head. “No, I have the same sensation with mundane humans, witches and wizards, demihumans, and undead, too.”

  “Dragons do have specialities that are unique to us as individuals,” Clement answered. “We are more influenced by the mana nearby when we were conceived than most other species, and because of our strength, we express those differences more obviously. It could be something unique to you.”

  “Of course, it could simply be that none of us have ever lived without being a dragon. It doesn’t sound like something I am familiar with, but there will undoubtedly be things that are strange to you that none of us have lived without and, therefore, won’t notice right away,” Arjun postulated. “You are unique because you’ve grown up without a dragon. But now you have one. So only you truly know both sides.”

  “I suppose. You mentioned that there were rules you had?”

  “Indeed. Though, I should inform you that they weren’t rules, as they haven’t been precisely codified. They are simply things that we’ve found would consistently earn retribution from our Seats. The only thing I’ve been explicitly told outright I couldn’t do was sire another dragon,” Arjun explained.

  “Children, or just another dragon?” I asked.

  He laughed. “Children are fine, though powerful ones garner attention, and that’s something we don’t particularly want either.”

  “How does that work? No one would explain it to me, and given that I have a partner who is actively trying for a child, I would like an explanation.”

  “What is the woman?” Clement asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “What is she? Witch? Spirit? Elf? Arachnae? And how powerful?”

  I furrowed my brow in irritation, but responded anyway, “Werewolf. D. Upper D. 80th percentile or so. Maybe 85th now.”

  Everyone in the room seemed to relax, and Eleanor explained why. “It’s not that we don’t want you to do what you wish, James, but another dragon isn’t what the world needs right now. Not one who would be raised by, no offense, a dragon who isn’t even yet aware of what he is. In twenty or fifty years, when the majority of the world has forgotten the sharpness of the memories of the past, maybe we will have true children to raise. Until then, you especially should take care to not sire a dragon.”

  “You’ve yet to explain how I do that.”

  “It’s not precise,” Arjun began,” but, in general, more powerful mates tend to result in more powerful offspring. A dragon and a dragon aren’t guaranteed to produce dragons — you are more likely to find your mate giving birth to a mighty witch or talented kobold. Perhaps one in fifteen children will breed true and be drakelings. Your other children will have potential just as high, though, which is why our star-crossed lovers here are forbidden from procreating.

  “Now, take your werewolf. She isn’t particularly strong. Before you jump down my throat, think about what I’m saying, James. She is a were, and one of enhanced physical abilities. She does not contain much capacity for mana. It does not fill her like it does you. She is strong in the conventional sense, but not in the magical sense. Your children with her may be physically gifted mundanes, capable witches or wizards, or weres slightly more blessed than your partner. On very, very rare occasions, we have observed were and dragon partnerings producing spirits, depending on where the conception occurs and the state of the world. Since she is not particularly gifted magically, it is unlikely, and the chance of a drakeling is so astronomical as to be ignored.”

  “So, it’s like magical math?” I asked. “You take half of me and half of her, see how much we add up to, and then which options are available at the end? If we’re powerful enough together, maybe dragon, maybe wizard. If not, maybe a werewolf, maybe a mundane, maybe a wizard.”

  “That’s the gist of it. And why we’ve been encouraged to only take mundanes as partners,” Arjun replied. “Kobolds or physically hearty mundanes are the most likely outcome there, and even powerful specimens of either of those aren’t world-changing in the way a dragon can be.”

  “Alright, so, what’s a kobold?”

  “A type of demi-human,” Adriana answered, “exclusively born from pairings with dragons. Look like a lizard — like their parent. Tail, horns, scales. No wings, unfortunately for them. Human-sized, maybe a little sturdier. Good with magic, though, unlike us, only outstanding in one aspect, typically. They can feel the flow almost as well as spirits inside their specialty, though. Within touching distance of our natural control.”

  That certainly sounded like it described Antonella. Only thing concerning was that Adrianna suggested her scales were inherited, but no one here looked like me. Antonella was elderly, but a human who appeared like her wouldn’t be old enough for the timelines to align. Which raised questions about how she came to be and if we shared the same progenitor.

  “How long do they live?” I asked.

  “Longer than humans, not as long as elves. The eldest can reach three hundred; natural causes don’t tend to take them before two hundred. Why?” Arjun replied.

  “I met one recently. Had scales that matched mine. Made me curious how that could be if they were inherited. But, okay, I appreciate the explanation about children. What were the other rules?”

  “We can fraternize with each other, but not with anyone else from another Seat’s territory,” Arjun said.

  “We are not allowed to meddle in magical business, only mundane ones,” Clement contributed. “Small-scale distribution of our physical resources can be handled in person to preapproved buyers.”

  “We must be ready to react if a magical emergency occurs in our region,” Eleanor sighed.

  “We are not permitted to socialize with other magical powers more than once every six months,” Adriana added.

  “And only in person,” Arjun clarified, “Or through mundane communication channels. We aren’t permitted to use FaeBook to interact with others. It needs to be inconvenient for suitors to come with us.”

  “We cannot own more than one percent of the region’s total material wealth, measured both collectively and per resource,” Clement said. “I was informed I owned too many fisheries at one point and then that I had too large a stake in the wine business. Evidently, euros sitting in a bank account have to stay there unless my Seat allows me to spend them, and they have to approve it first. Of course, I only had that much liquid capital in the first place because one of my companies started performing too well, and I nudged over that threshold, and it was suggested I should divest myself for the good of the region.”

  “If we host a gathering that is more than us five, it needs to have a representative observer from at least two regions,” Eleanor added. “Enjoyable experience having two Seats complaining that their houses weren’t invited to a gathering in one of Arjun’s estates.”

  “We aren’t allowed to flood the market with mana,” Adriana added. “Cheap, renewable energy that my countrymen could desperately use because we have two dragons just sitting in a mansion bequeathed to us with nothing else we’re allowed to do? No, evidently not something worth pursuing.”

  “Indeed,” Arjun agreed. “Japan is squabbling about nuclear energy after the reactor flooded. They could ask one of us for energy — or, frankly, petition the Seat, who would demand it from us — and be fine without it. They haven’t, yet, and I am confused as to why. Perhaps they are as scared of being reliant on us as they are on nuclear reactors.”

  “But we do have to provide mana toward public works, as requested by the Seats,” Eleanor chipped in. “The specifics seem to change every year, but they expect us to contribute to whatever they’re pursuing. Usually for the realm, sometimes personally.”

  “Alright,” I interrupted. “So, you’re not allowed to be powerful, at least in terms of connections, and everything you do is scrutinized, essentially.” I received four nods in affirmation, so I continued, “Why haven’t I been told any of this? Aisling came out and gave me a magical instructor so that I could learn how to use my abilities and then a vampire PA, too, so that I wouldn’t be navigating business deals alone. She gave me a FaeBook account the first day I was here, and the werewolf who wants a child is literally my state-assigned personal trainer. Aisling might not be connecting me with everything I could want, but I’m certainly not being ostracized like you seem to have been.”

  “I don’t know,” Arjun answered for the collective after a moment of silence. “But I would recommend you take advantage of it while it is available to you. Presumably, she wants something from you and intends to collect in the future when she feels you owe her. Proceed with a healthy touch of suspicion, of course, but do pounce on the opportunity before it disappears.”

  “It is plausible that she merely wants to be the only region in the world capitalizing on having a dragon,” Clement postulated. “Having those she trusts teach you means she has control over what you learn, so she can guide you into being a great tool for the realm. Even if you aren’t as cynical about it, having you with her advisors regularly means they will grow beyond their natural limits. It is undeniably a mutually beneficial transaction. She invests time and resources in you; you actually improve those resources, and then you end up being a massively productive member of society.”

  “That is basically what she explained when we first met. I still don’t understand how I’m meant to do anything. Everyone I’ve ever met seems to have some quasi-mundane job that they use magic on to be better or a literal mundane job. I’ve met a florist, a security officer, a lawyer, a bureaucrat, a scholar — things I’m not qualified for, no matter how powerful my magic is. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do for a living. As far as I can tell, all of you had some wealth before you were pushed out of the magical society. Even then, you had mundane holdings, and you were told to keep playing with them. With limits, sure, but a single winery in Nice or wherever it actually is dwarfs everything I own. You weren’t have-nots before you were pushed out. Two months ago, I was a college student. It wasn’t as much of a hardship for me as it was for many of my peers — my parents were very supportive in the ways they knew how to be — but I wasn’t wealthy. I owned a TV and a couch and a set of cheap glassware. I rented an apartment near campus. I didn’t even have a car. I was in the process of getting skills for that world and had my life turned upside down. How am I supposed to support my family?”

  No one answered for several seconds, so I reframed my question, “If you were in my position, what would you do? How would you start from scratch and use your magic to get to where you are now, living on dividends and corporate growth of your existing investments? Preferably in methods that help the population at least as much as they help me.”

  “Talk to Aisling about the agriculture in the region. Magically supporting food growth can lead to unintended consequences, but they are second and third-order effects that won’t be your direct problem,” Arjun suggested. “Especially if you can convince farmers to move away from government-subsidized crops because you’re subsidizing them instead, the region will benefit as things with lesser supply get reintroduced into the ecosystem. If you agree to a percentage of profit after things are sold, it may take a while to see your money, but it would likely be easier to get an initial agreement.”

  “Talk to the infrastructure experts in the region,” Adriana added. “See if you could sell them energy. Your residential dynamo is great, but it’s passive and, therefore, can’t be intentionally charged, and it is unlikely to be maximally efficient. If they have a more direct hookup, you can go to a power plant, push all of your mana into a battery for them, and let it discharge as needed. No more coal, no more environmental concerns over installing renewable collection, no more political posturing over nuclear. You just pop in, charge what they want to pay you for, and leave.”

  “Get a connection with a managing director at a hospital network,” Clement suggested. “Saliva is one of the most potent healing agents in the world, and the fact that it can be stored long-term and retain those properties means that you can ship small amounts of it to regional hospitals, and if there is a cataclysmic accident, your saliva can be used like the distributed blood banks — enough on-site to support the first wave of injuries, and then every other hospital around can send theirs in support. Everyone has a little, so whoever needs it at the moment can use it from their neighbor’s stock until you replenish them. On top of that, like Adriana said, they’ll also need energy, too. A contract for both might be hard to spin initially because no one has had access to either in a long time. The other directors may have forgotten how useful it can be.”

  “Sell your mana,” Eleanor offered. “Find a handful of local businesses you would patronize, ones that you want to see succeed, acquaint yourself with the owners, and fund their growth with your energy directly. Selling below the market rate will still be a gold mine because you have access to more of it than anyone else and can regenerate it faster than anyone else. You’ll put people receptive to you on the fast track to success and make a healthy profit, too.”

  “Take any and every offer you receive,” Arjun said. “You’re a new, powerful, unknown quantity. Everyone will want something from you and will offer something to you that they think you want. Perhaps don’t accept every offer, but listen to all of them. Anything you can do will be unique because none of us can offer it, and we’re the only other potential sources. You should seek to capitalize on the demands of the people with your uniquely accessible position.”

  I listened to the ideas and contemplated them. They sounded reasonable.

  So reasonable that I questioned why these people were so forcibly removed from society in the first place. The obvious conclusion wasn’t one I particularly liked, but it was the only one I had for the time being: being the most unambitious, most reasonable dragons of a larger population, they received the lesser punishment of exile.

  When no one else had anything else to say, Arjun clapped his hands. “Speaking of offers, James, what would it cost me not to pause my work on a hotel in Hawaii?”

  “Why would it cost you anything?” I asked.

  “There isn’t a dragon on the west coast. Hawaii is a bit isolated, but it is technically in that realm. You’re American. He’s not. Until a seventh dragon claims the American West, you have de facto authority over it. But, six months ago, no one had claim to it. Being already in the Pacific, Arjun was moving money there. Now, he’s respecting your position as the local authority, at least performatively, and attempting to help you by giving you some money that can be genuinely yours in a way that looks like a legitimate transaction,” Clement explained.

  “What should I ask for?” I replied.

  “I’m not sure. Money up front, perhaps, though I don’t know a fair valuation offhand. It depends on how much time and effort he’s invested already and the estimation of the asset’s profitability once it has matured. Percentage of income is another route you could take. A flat yearly fee and percent of profit, perhaps.”

  “I think I need to discuss this with my lawyer,” I replied, to which Clement and Arjun both started laughing.

  “Of course, James,” Arjun answered when he calmed. “Call her. Clement and I have matters of our own to discuss in the meantime.”