When Rustam and Rexus arrived at the meeting room, their father and Rhodaph were already there with some other members of the council, including their uncle. Rustam took his seat by Rhodaph as Rexus took his next to their father. He wondered why almost all of the people sitting around the table were looking at him strangely.

Padraig cleared his throat to get Rustam’s attention. “Son, why is there a mirror with Daelyniel in it floating next to you?”

“It’s something Ignacia is working on, and Daelyniel is here because he needed to speak to his father,” Rustam replied. He looked around and didn’t see Luvern anywhere and looked at his father. “Where is Luvern?”

“He had some business to take care of back in his city so he won’t be here,” Padraig answered. “Now that we’re all here, we can-”

“Your Majesty,” one of the councilmen interrupted. “Are we really going to allow that floating mirror in here?”

“Why not?” Padraig questioned. “Daelyniel is Luvern’s heir and can attend this meeting when his father is unable to. I understand that a floating mirror will be a little distracting, but we’ll get used to it.”

“The boy isn’t even here!” Drefan snapped, glaring at his brother while pointing a finger at the mirror. “He’s off frolicking with his own people. If he were so serious about Dwarven issues, why didn’t he come with you and everyone else?”

Padraig bit back a curse and forced himself to remain calm. Getting angry was only going to make more tempers flare, and that was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now. “Daelyniel is there to settle some trade agreements between us and the Eastern Leaflet along with proposing trade with the Archfiends. He’s not there frolicking with the Nymphs. Also, he’s half Pixie and one-fourth Fairy. He’s not technically with his own people.”

Drefan huffed and crossed his arms. “He’s still a Fey. One that will be on the council one day. You expect the Dwarves to accept someone like him?”

“When are you going to stop this argument?” Rhodaph groused as he rubbed his temples. “You complain about the same things over and over again, Drefan. Just accept that Daelyniel will be on this council one day. No matter how much you complain, that will never change.”

Drefan slammed his hand on the table. “The Dwarven Council is supposed to be that, boy. A council of Dwarves. That Fey will never be one of us! It’s bad enough that Sir Oren’s granddaughter will be court wizard one day. That woman is much crazier than he is.”

Before anyone could say anything, Rexus slammed his hand on the wooden table and stood up to glare at his uncle. “By the gods, shut up, Drefan! As insane as she is and all the reports I have to deal with because of her eccentricities, Ignacia is an invaluable ally for our family and homeland. And she's one of the smartest people on the continent. Now, either leave or shut your damn mouth!”

That seemed to put Drefan in his place for now. He glared at his nephew until Rhodaph cleared his throat and signaled him to sit down. 

Rexus' outburst surprised everyone. For as long as they’d known each other, he and Ignacia always had an antagonistic relationship. Seeing Rexus defend her made Rustam happy to see his brother defending the future court wizard. Though she’d rather die than ask if her position was safe, Ignacia told him that she was a little scared that Rexus would replace her. Now, he could proudly tell her that her position was safe. 

“Alright, let’s begin this meeting,” Padraig stated before looking at Rustam and the floating mirror with Daelyniel’s face. “You said Ignacia discovered something about the drakes?”

“Yes,” Rustam replied. “Sir Oren is looking over all the information they’ve gathered over the years about them because Ignacia has discovered that these aren’t real drakes we’re dealing with…”

Daelyniel looked over his notes while Rustam explained everything to the council. To avoid being a distraction to the others, Rustam held the mirror down in front of him.

There wasn’t much Daelyniel could do, so he quietly made his way to Galenova’s family’s library to see if she was there by chance. He knew she was helping Sir Oren research ancient and forbidden magics, and figured he could help with that. As he walked by the sitting room, he saw Galenova’s parents talking to Prince Phenex and his guards, Balamia and Veparei, standing at the doorway. He nodded to them and kept walking, but he wondered what the prince and Galenova’s parents were discussing. He just hoped it wasn’t about another proposal for his friend. If she kept refusing them, her parents might just force her into marriage.

When he entered the library, he nodded to the scholar who was usually there and made his way over to the usual area where he and his friends would sit. Galenova was there and had several open books lying all over the large table.

“Anything?” he whispered.

She shook her head. “No,” she whispered back. “Sir Oren asked me to look into necromancy, but a lot of these books say the same thing and are very basic with their information.”

“I’ll look around,” he said, and handed her the mirror. Rustam had finished telling the council everything they knew and King Padraig was now talking about their next move to help the survivors. He wrote a quick note to Rustam that said he was going to help Galenova’s research and his cousin nodded before turning his attention back to the meeting. Daelyniel walked over to the section where he knew books about forbidden and ancient magics were. None of them seemed like they would be of help. He’d read a lot of books here whenever he visited and knew most of them. Like Galenova said, most of them had general information they already knew. 

He looked up at the very top shelf and wondered if any of the books there would be of any help. Now that he thought about it, he’d never ventured too far up the shelf and had been told the books up there were very old and probably wouldn’t be of any use to anyone. Daelyniel supposed it wouldn’t hurt to see and quietly flew up. The shelves and books were very dusty and it was obvious no one paid any attention to these books. As he slowly looked around, one area caught his attention. He noticed the dust was missing where one book was and that the book itself didn’t look dusty.

“Someone recently read this…,” he mused. He grabbed the book and looked over the cover. The title was mostly faded off, but he could see the word “fusion” on it. Daelyniel didn't know too much about it, but he knew that kind of magic meant combining two things, living or non-living, together to create something stronger. Maybe this was the key to learning how the drakes were made...

“Now that’s a magic I haven’t seen used in a while.”

Daelyniel dropped the book and fell down when his wings went still. He nearly jumped out of his skin when strong arms caught him. When he looked up, his cheeks started burning when he saw Veparei holding him. Daelyniel was pretty sure the demonic-looking man could hear his heart beating like crazy.

The Archfiend guard grinned at him. “Hello.”

“Umm, hello,” Daelyniel greeted back nervously.

“Vep, you can put him down. Give the man some dignity.”

Daelyniel looked up and saw a male Nymph slowly descending with the book in hand. Like other Nymphs, he had translucent dragonfly-shaped wings, but Daelyniel noticed some dark patches on his. His jade green hair with magenta tips stood out against his rosy porcelain skin with some covering his right eye. His left eye started azure blue at the top and faded into lavender at the bottom.  When he landed, he handed Daelyniel the book and smiled. 

“Here you go,” the man said.

“T-Thank you,” Daelyniel replied with a small nod. He looked at the Archfiend guard and tried to keep himself from stuttering. “Can you please put me down, Sir Veparei? And thank you for catching me.”

“You’re welcome," the Archfiend guard said as he let him go.

“I’m Caelin. I’m the mate of Talorobas, the guard you and your friends met when you arrived to escort Prince Phenex,” the Nymph introduced. “My apologies for scaring you. I was curious to see why you were so high up.”

Daelyniel shook his head. “It’s fine. I should’ve been more aware of my surroundings. Princess Galenova asked me to find some books about-”

“Forbidden and ancient magics?” Caelin finished. His face looked amused, but Daelyniel could see his eye was questioning why.

The Pixie nodded. “It’s for research. Galenova and I are helping Sir Oren with his research on drakes. You’re more than welcome to join us.” Though Prince Phenex and his group seemed trustworthy, Daelyniel had a feeling these two weren’t here by coincidence. Did the prince order them to come here?

Veparei frowned as he looked in Galenova’s direction. “Forgive me, but does the princess usually talk to herself in the mirror?”

Daelyniel laughed nervously as they walked back to her. “Long story short, Ignacia gave us mirrors so that we can communicate with one another when far away. Galenova is probably talking to Rustam if the meeting is done.”

“I see…,” Caelin mused. “Her dossier did say she has a unique way of using magic.”

“Igy is always trying new things. Whether she’s successful or not, depends on one’s definition of success,” Daelyniel told them and knocked on the book as they got closer to Galenova.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw him with Veparei and Caelin, and quickly stood up and bowed. “H-hello. I wasn’t expecting Daelyniel to come back with company. I'm Princess Galenova.” 

“Princess, you don’t need to bow. I’m just the mate to one of Prince Phenex’s guards,” Caelin insisted. “We came here on behalf of Prince Phenex. He couldn’t help but notice some things and was a little concerned.”

“Notice what?” Daelyniel asked as he set the book down in front of his friend.

“Well for one, he noticed you walking by with a floating mirror with Prince Rustam’s face in it. And earlier, he noticed Princess Galenova rushing to the library,” Veparei replied. “He was afraid something happened to Prince Rustam. He still has many questions he would like to ask him and would be devastated if something were to happen to him and his family. He’s already sulking because they left early.”

The Pixie chuckled and remembered hearing about that. “Well, maybe he can talk to him later through the mirror. Rustam felt bad for leaving early, but there was an emergency.”

“Fusion magic?” Galenova asked quietly.

Daelyniel nodded as he sat next to her. “I flew up to the higher shelves and noticed the dust was gone in front of this one. Maybe it might help us understand how the drakes were created.”

“I’ll let Sir Oren know,” Rustam said through the mirror. “The meeting is done. I’m heading over there to check on Igy and see her progress. Seems like we’re dealing with a lot of different types of ancient magics.”

“Perhaps we can be of assistance,” Veparei offered. “Prince Phenex knows a lot about this type of magic and is considered one of the few masters of it in all the realms. He even has a lot of knowledge about forbidden magics as well.”

Daelyniel’s eyebrow arched in suspicion. “And how does he know so much about them? No offense, but you looked at me suspiciously when you saw me with the book. Why shouldn’t we be concerned about him knowing this?”

“I look at everyone with suspicion when I see them looking into the dark arts and-” He leaned down to look straight into the Pixie’s lilac eyes and admired that the smaller man wasn’t looking away. “-Prince Phenex is a descendant of the originators of these magics. He knows just about everything. More than those books would ever have.”

Daelyniel didn’t look away from those pale yellow eyes and stood as tall as he could. “Do you think he’d be willing to help us?”

Veparei grinned at him. “I’m sure I can convince him. Wait here. And Prince Rustam? Be ready for him to talk your ear off." He nodded to Caelin and the two of them walked off to get their eccentric prince.