Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140644 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140644 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
They sat in King Alric’s office, situated in the chairs and couch. Baldewin kept close to him, and Tori was ridiculously reassured by that. He sat at the edge of his seat, not able to relax into it with King Alric directly across from him.
He truly was a handsome man, even more so in person than the picture Tori had seen of him. Tori could see why Cameron would take one look and fall for the dragon king. And Lisette looked ageless and graceful, like a movie star sliding into her golden years. Tori was ever so glad now that Baldewin had bought him new clothes. Meeting these two in the ratty jeans and pull-over shirt he normally wore would have been, just, no.
“Thank you for meeting with us like this,” Alric said to him sincerely. “I know there’s much about our clan that you want to experience and take in. I don’t mean to distract you from that. I just have many questions about the Jaeggi, as you’re the first trained mage to have interacted with them one-on-one. I feel that your experience is invaluable.”
“I’m happy to help however I can,” he answered with a faint smile. “It feels strange, is all. I grew up hearing that the Jaeggi were friends and allies. I’m not sure how the tables were turned so neatly that I now fear them as enemies.”
“Yes, it’s likely a very strange thing for you. Much as it was for us, before the Dragon War started.”
Oh. Oh, come to think of it, that would have been true. The dragon clans and the Jaeggi had been friends and allies then, too, before Kaiser Jaeggi betrayed them. That perspective flipped his mind even further, and he couldn’t help but ponder it for a moment. Perhaps these dragons could empathize with him far better than he first assumed.
“Let us start from the beginning,” Lisette suggested, her voice smooth except for a slight, rough burr. “The first time you encountered the Jaeggi in Helsinki.”
“Yeah, that was a shi—uh”—Do not swear in front of royalty. Bad mouth—“crazy situation from start to finish. I didn’t know to be wary of them.”
“Sorry,” Baldewin sighed.
Tori knocked a shoulder against his, flashing him a smile. He was glad they were on the couch together so he could do that. “I’ve forgiven you already. But yeah, I just walked right up to them on the metro, as I didn’t know any better. I could see from their auras that they had magic, and I needed magical supplies but wasn’t sure where in the city to go. It’s not like you can just Google those stores.”
“This is true.” Lisette had a sad expression on her face. “Not in these modern times do such stores so openly exist. So, you approached them.”
“Yeah.” Tori cast his mind’s eye back to that moment. “I did think something was off. Their magical auras looked odd to me. But I passed it off as nothing, thinking that I’d only ever seen mages from my own clan. Maybe it was normal for the other clans to look different from mine. Now, of course, I realize it was just them. All of you have the right look.”
Lisette leaned forward, expression intent. “We’ve never had an opportunity to truly study their auras, as we are forever fighting when we do meet. Can you describe this more precisely?”
Tori frowned, trying to pull what he’d seen and instinctively understood into words. “Fragmented? It’s not the right word. Maybe distorted? As if their magical aura wasn’t really their own, but something borrowed and forced to fit around them. It looked transparent, too. Cold. A mage’s aura should be more warm, almost golden at the edges. This looked the opposite, like a ghost of what it should be.”
“Interesting,” she murmured before taking a quick note on the notebook in her lap. “I’ve had that impression before myself, but I’ve never fully engaged with a Jaeggi mage one on one. Those who have either didn’t have magical sight or weren’t trained enough to recognize what they saw.”
He was apparently making sense. Thank fuck. Tori had no idea how else to put it into words. “Anyway, they were acting cagey and weird, and I was steadily regretting talking to them. But it wasn’t until I got out of the station with them that it went to hell. They were adamant that because they didn’t know me, they’d have to blindfold me and tie me up before transporting me to a magic shop they knew. And that’s when I dug in my heels. They stopped pretending to be nice at that point. They tried to physically wrestle me into the van. I thought I’d lost Baldewin and Warin, that they weren’t following me, so I tried to get myself out of there. I didn’t know I had backup.”