"What is wrong with your dragon?" Sarafin asked. He stroked his mount's neck with the back of his trembling hand. There were several gashes along his dragon's side. They didn't look lethal, but a decent amount of red-hot blood still oozed out onto his golden scales.
"There's nothing wrong with her," I said. I envied the easy relationship Sarafin had with his dragon, like they had always been together. "What did you do to her?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Draining a small amount of life energy merely stuns," he answered, his expression stern.
We waited in silence for a few minutes, until the building's front doors opened and Callah began escorting the conference's members out. As soon as Sarafin saw her, he started walking away briskly with his dragon.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"To the infirmary," he shouted back.
A short while later, when all the conference members had left, Callah gestured for me to come inside with her. I did, and she led me down the small hallway past the entrance hall. We went through a door at the end, through which was was a long, rectangular room lined with bookshelves and marble pedestals. At the far end of the room was a desk on a raised platform. Behind it was a purple curtain that rustled slightly, even though there was no breeze that I could feel.
On the platform, there was a desk and a couple of chairs. We went over to it and sat down.
"Why did you want to meet me?" I asked, looking around at everything. There were stone slabs the size of textbooks on top of and around all the pedestals, which I thought was a bit odd.
"I knew your father when we were younger. A month before you were born, he wrote a letter to me asking that I take care of you if anything were to happen to him or your mother." She moved to stand between me and the desk. "However, his plans must have changed, because you ended up in the care of the Balugers, and I couldn't find you until recently." The cinem rune on her forehead suddenly glowed blue, so I knew she was reading my mind. I wondered why. She knew a lot more about the situation than I did, like why my father would send a letter to her, of all people.
"He sent me the letter because I am like you, Ella. I am a paltor," she explained. I flinched at the word and stepped back, suddenly mistrustful. Paltors had a violent reputation for a reason, at least according to my history professor. And according to everyone else I knew, for that matter.
"I am no more a monster than yourself," Callah assured me. I didn't know her well enough to be able to agree or disagree, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Very well, I suppose I will have to prove myself to you over time. You will see enough of me in our lessons to decide," she added. Her rune stopped glowing, and I was glad of it.
"What lessons?" I asked.
"I will teach you about being a paltor in occasional lessons for however long you remain here," she explained. Her tone made me think I didn't have a choice in the matter, and I wasn't sure what I thought about that. But a growing part of me felt like I might've finally found someone I could talk to about it all, someone who really understood what it was like to have to keep their true self a secret.
As I mulled this over, Callah went behind the curtain and came back with food after a few minutes.
"Magin muffin?" she asked, gesturing at the breakfast plate between us. I took one of the purple muffins and started nibbling on it.
"For as long as you are at the Academy, I will instruct you how to better use your fire magic and deal with other aspects of your paltor heritage," Callah said. I didn't say anything, but the last thing I wanted to do to was to strengthen my fire magic. My powers were already out of control half the time.
"Do you have a wand?" she asked. I shook my head. "Then I will supply you with one." I remembered what Mother had said about my powers being dangerous. I knew that they were, and a wand would only amplify their effect.
"As soon as you are done eating, we will start our first lesson," Callah announced. I knew I couldn't do it. It was one thing to accidentally make my clothes start smoking, but actually using a wand was a recipe for disaster. I didn't want to hurt anyone else, not after Sarafin's hands.
"I don't need lessons," I lied, "I'm fine at controlling fire."
"Then show me," she replied, taking a candle from her desk drawer. She set it in front of my plate.
"Just light the candle," she instructed.
"But I don't have a wand," I reminded her.
"You shouldn't need one to do something as simple as this."
Hesitantly, I concentrated on the wick, willing it to burn, but nothing happened.
"As I thought. If you were in control of your powers, you wouldn't need powerful emotions to summon even the tiniest spark of fire," Callah commented.
"I just don't want to light the candle. I could if I wanted to." It was an obvious lie and didn't fool her for a second.
"Why do you claim to be in control of your powers when you most certainly are not?" she asked, drumming the desk with her fingers. I hesitated, then admitted,
"I wish I didn't have them."
"Yet you do have them, and since you do, you will need to control them. As you must know, a lack of control could lead to discovery, which would only end with your death."
I quietly finished my muffin and then started another. When I was done eating, Callah cleared the desk.
"To begin our lesson, you will need a wand and a rune book," she instructed, taking out a draw-string bag. It was the size of my hand and made of black velvet. She tried to give it to me. When I wouldn't take it, she put it down on the desk.
"Now, take out the guide and turn to the first basic rune." Learning explicit knowledge about the magical practices of other species was forbidden by every law book I'd heard of. Forget dangerous, it would be downright deadly if I was caught.
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