After coming back to the castle, Rustam helped Ignacia move the body of the drake to her and Sir Oren’s workroom so they could start their investigation. He felt a little uneasy with the way she was mumbling to herself on their journey back home. The only times Ignacia did that was when she was serious about something and a serious Igy was a very scary Igy. That meant she was going to get very little to no sleep for the next few days. 

Once she and Sir Oren were obsessed with something, there was no stopping them unless it was Lady Brunhilda doing the stopping. Unfortunately for him, she too was also very busy with something and wouldn’t be available to check on them. The last time Rustam tried to get Ignacia to sleep after she stayed up for three whole days, she screamed at him for interrupting her work, ordered him to sit down, and gave him a very loud and long lecture about the history of grapes for the next six hours…all while dissecting a drake and writing down notes.

Rustam learned a lot about grapes that day. More than he ever wanted to know, but now he knew how to make fruit jam and preserves.

Now, it was day four and Rustam was very worried about his friend. And desperate times were calling for desperate measures. So, he was going to risk sitting for six hours and getting another strange lecture, but he was willing to take it if it meant convincing Igy to get some sleep. Bracing himself for this, he knocked on the door to her and Sir Oren’s workroom. When neither of them answered, he opened the door and peeked inside.

Sir Oren wasn't anywhere in the room and Ignacia wasn’t sitting in her usual area. She stood in front of the large wall covered with her and Sir Oren’s notes about the dragons and drakes. He was a little surprised to see her without her hat on. The only time she didn’t wear it was when she slept, but based on the sleeveless, dark green nightgown and her messy hair, she’d just woken up. But the most surprising thing was the two small mirrors floating on either side of her.

“Igy…?” he called out.

The mage turned around and Rustam nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Galenova and Daelyniel’s sleepy faces in the mirrors. Ignacia didn’t look much better with the dark circles under her eyes and her fair skin looking very pale. 

“It’s about time you got here,” Daelyniel grumbled. “Get this crazy woman back in bed! She’s been telling us the history of cheese for the past three hours. Do we look like we want to know how it’s made or the many varieties of it this early in the damn morning!?”

Galenova laughed nervously and hid her yawn behind her hand. “It’s been…interesting.”

“THAT’S IT!!” Ignacia shouted. All the candles in the room got brighter then went back to normal after a few seconds. “It’s a fake cheese!”

The other three looked at each other with confused looks. “Any idea?” Rustam asked them.

“None,” Daelyniel replied with a yawn. “Igy, use sense please.”

“They’re fake cheeses!” Ignacia exclaimed, pacing back and forth. “Fake cheeses are artificial! Not as good as the real thing! But easier and faster to make!”

“Igy, none of us are following,” Rustam said as gently as he could. “Should I make her go back to bed?”

“Fake cheeses only look like the real thing, but they’re not,” Ignacia continued without even acknowledging him. She walked over to the body of the dissected drake. “Why didn’t we think that all this time? We’ve been studying the real cheeses but we need to treat them like fake cheeses!”

“Is she…referring to the drakes?” Galenova asked.

Daelyniel frowned and massaged his temples. It was obvious that Ignacia was…somewhere else. Trying to talk sense into her wouldn’t get them anywhere so it was best to go along with the madness for now. He grabbed his journal and charcoal stick from his bedside table. “Tell us more about the fake cheeses, Igy.”

“Grandfather and I thought the cheeses were real ones! We thought time and the environment made them different than what we’ve seen in the books, but that’s not true! They only look and feel like real cheese! But they’re not!” Ignacia grabbed a book and quickly flipped through the pages and handed it to Rustam. “This is it! A fake cheese in cheese clothing!” She walked back to the wall, mumbling more to herself.

Rustam looked at the page and saw it had a drawing of a wolf’s inside anatomy and another one of its skeleton. He didn’t know why she handed this to him and held it up to the mirrors so his friends could see better. “I’m still not following.”

Daelyniel started scribbling down notes while Galenova looked closely at the pages Rustam showed them. “She said “fake cheese in cheese clothing.” Isn’t she talking about the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” quote?”

“Something like it. Give me a minute,” Daelyniel replied. His mirror floated over to Ignacia who was still mumbling to herself only now she added tomatoes and potatoes into the mix. “Igy, is the fake cheese wearing the real cheese’s clothes?”

“Fake cheese magically looks like real cheese but still acts like a fake cheese,” she answered without looking away from the wall as her eyes jumped from note to note. “Fake cheese made to eat tomatoes and potatoes.”

Daelyniel nodded and signaled Rustam and Galenova to keep quiet as he wrote more notes. “Igy, my dear, is the fake cheese forced to eat the tomatoes and potatoes?”

Ignacia pulled some papers off the wall and handed them to Rustam. “All potatoes and tomatoes are in danger. Fake cheese designed to eat only them…” Her green eyes kept looking at the wall as if she piecing everything together, but they were also starting to blink very rapidly. 

Rustam looked through the papers she gave him. It was a list of the survivors of the recent attack. It was sad to look at since almost half the survivors were listed as injured. One of the papers she handed had a list of the deceased.

“Let me see the lists, Rustam,” Daelyniel said as his mirror over to him. His lilac eyes quickly scanned over the papers and he quickly wrote more notes before his mirror floated back to Ignacia, whose eyes were blinking a lot more now. “Igy, sweetie, I know you’re sleepy, but please answer this: why fake cheese and not real cheese?”

Ignacia didn’t answer for a while. If her eyes hadn’t been scanning the wall, Rustam and the others would’ve thought she fell asleep standing up. “Real cheese is hard to make…”

“I’m still confused about the potatoes and tomatoes metaphors,” Galenova whispered.

At that moment, Sir Oren and Lady Brunhilda entered. When they almost said something, Rustam and Galenova signaled them not to say a word. The prince held Ignacia steady when he saw her swaying a little. “Dael, do you have more questions or can I send her to bed? She’s starting to sway.”

“Send her to bed. I’m translating her words right now,” Daelyniel told him.

Oren and Brunhilda hurried over to their granddaughter. The older woman wrapped a blanket around her. “Come on, Igy. Why don’t you come to bed? You can sleep here,” she suggested. “Grandfather and I will protect you.” She nodded to her husband to let him know she would take it from there and helped their granddaughter to the room next door.

The court wizard frowned as he looked at the wall covered in notes. “She’s been working hard since the attack. We’ve been researching these creatures for years, but everything in the books is so much different than what we’ve seen in real life.”

“That’s because you’ve been researching the wrong thing,” Daelyniel stated.

Oren looked at the mirrors curiously. “What in the world…?”

“Umm, long story short: Igy gave us these mirrors and said she’ll use them to contact us,” Galenova informed. “We’re not sure exactly how they work and she wasn’t in the right head space to give us an answer.”

“Focus, people!” Daelyniel shouted. “What Igy was referring to as “fake cheese” were the drakes. They’re not real drakes.”

“But how?” Rustam asked. He thought back to all the drakes they’d seen over the years. They were tall like the books said. These last ones were on the smaller side, but he figured they were probably young ones. But their different-shaped paws did make him wonder…

“Those are wolves,” Daelyniel informed them. “The “fake cheese in cheese clothing” that Igy is referring to are wolves. The drake you recovered a few days ago is actually a wolf who’s been magically altered to look like a drake. And you said this drake wasn’t alone, right?”

Rustam nodded. “Right. Survivors said a group of them attacked the village and ran away after one of them was killed.”

Daelyniel cursed as he looked over his notes. “It was a group of wolves. Someone has been creating the drakes this whole time. Better to create something terrifying than tame the actual thing. Drakes haven’t been seen on this continent for almost a thousand years. Or at least not where there are people. And as Igy said, it’s faster and easier to create.”

“But how would someone be able to make them?” Oren questioned.

“Some kind of forbidden or ancient magic?” Galenova offered.

Oren looked over the notes. “It could be. I’ll have to do some research. Though if someone is turning animals like wolves into some kind of drake, I fear we might not have much time.”

“We just need to figure out what the tomatoes and potatoes are…,” mused Daelyniel. “I thought I had it figured out…” What could Igy have been talking about? It didn’t make sense to him. “She said that the fake cheese eats the tomatoes and potatoes…is she talking about people?”

A loud knock on the door made everyone jump and Rexus entered. “Rustam, we need-”

“Potato!” Galenova shouted, pointing at Rexus. When she realized how loud she’d been, she covered her face to hide her embarrassment.

Rexus made a disgusted face and looked at all of them like they were crazy. “That’s rude, Princess Galenova. And-wait why are her and Daelyniel in those-are those floating mirrors!?”

“Never mind that!” Daelyniel yelled at him. “Galenova! What do you mean Rexus is a potato?”

“I’m not a potato!” Rexus yelled back.

“Rexus, quiet!” Rustam scolded and turned Galenova’s mirror to face him. “Galenova?”

Galenova uncovered her face. “Umm, that Rexus is maybe a potato that Ignacia was talking about? And I think you’re a tomato. I’m sorry for calling you that!”

“The common potato is brown and tomatoes are red,” Daelyniel said with realization. “Rustam! Show me the list of the survivors and the deceased.” When his cousin showed him the lists, he took note of the appearances which he thought was strange at first, but now it made sense. “The drakes were targeting those with brown hair and red hair…they’re really after the royal family.”

Everyone went pale when he said that and looked at each other. Rustam shivered at the thought of people dying just because they had the same hair color as him and his family. “That means a lot of people are in danger just because they look similar to us.” He looked at his older brother. “We need to inform Father about this. I'm sure there's more to this, but we know this much now.”

Rexus nodded in agreement. “That’s why I came here. Father summons you to the meeting room to talk about this situation. Let’s go.”