Embers of the Past

by Bethany Atwood

  “For the foreseeable future our dragons friends have been invited to visit our nations, and so from time to time you will all see one or two landing on the grounds of the academy. Please, socialize with our dragon friends, they mean us no harm, nor do we wish them harm, think of this as a learning experience for all.”

  As the intercom cuts out, Kagura and Mer’ania look towards each other, grins forming before they turn and race towards the door. With the same idea in mind they join the rest of the student body in making their way outside to where the dragon is resting, a rather pleased expression visible on their face.

  “Greetings students of Solenim, it’s been quite some time since I’ve been this far from home. I am Selanius, a fire dragon, I reside in a region of the Dragon Lands that is populated by a few volcanoes. It’s a warmer climate where I live, but I do so like the warmth.” Selanius breathes out with a loud, feminine voice. “We were surprised to receive an invitation from your leaders to explore the world, though with those rather odd mages from not long ago maybe it isn’t all that surprising.”

  As the students continue to gather around and marvel over the dragon before them, Selanius looks them over, making note of the varied appearances in the student body, all made up of humans, elves, angels, demons, and were-people, though some bear noticeable marks of injury and recovery. Once she sees there is a sizable gathering near enough, she clears her throat, this sending out a small puff of flame that startles many a student and even sends some toppling backwards.

  “Oh, excuse me, I forget that you aren’t used to seeing dragon’s breath. I’m sure many of you have questions you’d like to ask, I’ll gladly answer any and all, though I do wish to clarify a few things, seeing as many of you are likely seeing a dragon for the very first time. We dragons pick a mate after a few hundred years of life, though we do not breed often, as we live to a great age and understand that breeding too frequently would come to overpopulate our lands in time. While no borders are closed, we prefer the comfort of our lands due to the climates, though have graciously accepted the chance to roam the world for a while.”

  Selanius continues to converse with the students for quite a while, until it comes time for everyone to depart for dinner, the dragoness gazing over to the barrier curiously as it shimmers before shrugging it off and resting her eyes. As the students return into the school they chatter amongst themselves, seeming rather excited to have a dragon on the grounds for the time being.

  “I can’t believe no one told us we were going to have dragons visiting our lands, I mean, actual dragons. I knew they existed, but I’ve never actually seen one!” Kagura gleefully says as she and Mer’ania settle down at a table, the dragon all anyone can seem to talk about at the moment.

  “Maybe no one knew until now we were going to have dragons visiting? I never saw any myself, dad said there were a few who resided in Tal’vedan when he was younger, though I have no idea if they still live there.” Mer’ania hums out in reply as she serves up food for herself, her and Kagura, alongside all others around, continuing to converse even as they begin to eat their meals.

  After dinner many students elect to return outside to converse with Selanius further, while the rest return to their dorms or the common areas, Kagura and Mer’ania entering their own shared room before gazing out the window, the mostly darkened sky giving way to light from the exterior lamps illuminating the grounds.

  “Do you want to head down to see Selanius again Kagura?” Mer’ania asks, the brunette shaking her head while a small smile forms.

  “Not particularly, I was actually going to video chat with mom once I got into pajamas. She’s should be home from work right now, and we agreed to chat once she was.” As Kagura responds she fetches her pajamas, going about the same steps as usual in the process. She retreats into the bathroom momentarily, giving Mer’ania time to change as well, then steps back out, nightgown flowing with each step taken.

  “Mind if I join you? I’ve only gotten to meet Professor Melangreve, but not your other mother, and if I remember right you said she’s a demoness like me, so it would be nice to see who is helping care for the best girl in the world.” The demoness teases, Kagura promptly going red in the cheeks before shaking her head again.

  “N… No, err… I don’t mind, Mer.” Speaking with a softer tone, Kagura grabs her tome and climbs up onto her bed, Mer’ania settling at her side before the shorter teen taps away at the screen and starting a video call with Nev’aran. After a few moments of ringing the screen changes, revealing the grinning face of Kagura’s second mother, Kagura’s smile growing when she sees her.

  “Hey there Shortpuff!” Nev’aran greets teasingly, eliciting a redder blush from the short teen, “How’s life treating you? School alright and everything?”

  “Life’s good mom, really. School’s been… Well, the same, nothing really new, although a dragon did land here before dinner.” Nev chuckles a bit at hearing that, her smile softening a little.

  “Yeah? Your mother did message me and say you might say something about a dragon, I reckon it’s all anyone can talk about. We’ve had a few land not far from Lunaria, they’re going to be in the area for a while, so I greeted them earlier with some dragon sized coffee. Needless to say they rather enjoyed it, though it was likely the first time they’ve had coffee to begin with.” Kagura chuckles a little while Mer’ania giggles, Nev’aran quirking an eyebrow momentarily before Kagura tilts her tome to put both herself and Mer’ania in view of the camera.

  “Hello there Mrs. Melangreve, well, the other Mrs. Melangreve, it’s very nice to finally meet you! Kagura has told me so much about you.” Seeing Mer’ania, Nev smiles wider and nods, taking in the younger demoness’s appearance for a few moments.

  “It is very nice to meet you as well Ms. Mer’ania,, though you can just call me Nev’aran. Kagura has told me much about you as well. Thank you for taking care of my daughter while she’s at school, though I’m certain she cares for you just as much-”

  “Moooooom!” Kagura whines out, cheeks returning to their prior redness. “You’re being embarrassing!”

  “Isn’t it a mother’s job to embarrass her child around their significant other, Shortpuff?” Mer’ania giggles upon hearing the name Shortpuff again, her gaze falling on Kagura.

  “Shortpuff? That’s such a cute nickname! How did you think of it Nev’aran?” Deciding to ignore her daughter’s feelings on the matter Nev grins cheekily, glad Mer’ania was curious.

  “I came up with it not long after we adopted her, when she’s upset and pouts she puffs her cheeks out, and she’s our short little sweetheart, so I began to call her my sweet little Shortpuff. I know she secretly loves it, even if it embarrasses her greatly-”

  “MOOOOM! PLEASE!” Kagura once again whines out, though louder this time, arms crossing over her chest and cheeks puffing out as she looks to the side and pouts.

  “Aw, that’s sweet. I think it suits her, I did notice that whenever she gets teased she pouts and puffs out her cheeks, it’s one of the most precious things about her.” Mer’ania says with a grin, Nev’aran winking to her while she knows Kagura can’t see.

  “I hope you don’t tease her too much, if she pouted all the time I think her cheeks would never deflate.” Both Nev and Mer’ania giggle when Kagura whines a third time, the elder demoness smiling a little softer before she glances towards Kagura.

  “Alright, I’m gonna get going now, probably a good idea to make dinner before it gets too late. You take care you two, love you Shortpuff!”

  “… L… Love you too, Mom…” Kagura murmurs in reply, making a point to be loud enough to be heard yet also showing just how annoyed she is at the moment. With a wave Nev’aran signs off, Mer’ania setting the tome down before tugging Kagura into an embrace.

  “Hey, Kags, you alright?” Mer’ania asks, Kagura sighing before burying her face against the demoness’s shoulder.

  “Please don’t start calling me Shortpuff now, Mer… It’s one th
ing if mom does it and embarrasses me, I’d rather not have two people tease me with that…” Kagura mutters, Mer’ania simply nodding and kissing the top of her head.

  “Now why would I start calling you that, silly? I already have a nickname for you, I don’t need to use your mother’s nickname when I rather like the one I came up with all on my own.” Being careful Mer’ania deftly scoops the smaller teen into her arms as she stands, striding over to her bed before settling onto it, back against the headrest, and Kagura nestled against her lap.

  “Here, let’s watch a movie together, I know we have lessons tomorrow but we have time before we should sleep, a movie to end the night and help us both unwind sounds perfect, hmm?” Kagura slowly nods before leaning back against Mer’ania’s chest, cheeks gradually starting to lose their red hue though only slightly.

  “… I’d like that, Mer, it’s… Certainly been a while since we last watched a movie together,”

  Chapter 10: First Steps

  As students settled back into the familiar routines of school days passed, quickly bringing a particularly treacherous winter storm assaulting the school grounds. The cold grew drastically and what was formerly a gentle falling of snow gave way to a tremendously powerful blizzard, strong wings buffeting the school building as more than a half foot of snow quickly came to cover the grounds, effectively sealing students inside for the foreseeable future. While this doesn’t hinder teleportation to and from the interior of the school, it does ensure teleportation is the only means of entering and exiting the school, even the train platforms too coated in snow to allow effective travel.

  “Stupid snow…” Kagura grumbles out, carelessly slumped into an armchair in the common area with a leg draped over it’s right arm. “Stupid appointments… Why couldn’t there have been this much snow in Lunaria, why do we have to suffer from being forced indoors, yet I still have to go to stupid appointments…”

  “Personally, I’m thankful there isn’t so much snow where I live in Tal’vedan. I had an appointment as well, though mine wasn’t as painful, it was just my twice yearly appointment to have my prosthesis looked at and measurements taken to ensure it’s properly sized.” Mer’ania hums out, unable to resist giggling afterwards when Kagura throws her arms upwards out of exasperation.

  “Why am I the only one who has doctor’s appointments that cause suffering? WHY ME? Who did I piss off in a past life to cause this!” She bemoans, and rather loudly at that, arms crossing over her chest almost immediately as she huffs a little.

  “Honestly, Kags, is it really that bad? I know it hurts for a few days, but you’ve been through worse.” Mer’ania says, Kagura glancing off to the side before audibly exhaling.

  “I can’t handle pain, Mer, you know that. I’m not like other people, I don’t tolerate pain well, even something like a minor headache will aggravate me, so getting my braces tightened is torture. The only thing that makes the few days of misery afterwards even bearable is pain relief elixir, but it doesn’t exactly help when I’m eating, bite into something hard, and get hit with a wave of sharp pain…” Mer’ania frowns as Kagura speaks, a hand reaching over before lightly stroking along the brunette’s head.

  “I’ve always had a high tolerance to pain, the day I lost my lower leg… I guess I was too filled with adrenaline to notice I was in a lot of pain, though it was cold out that day, that might have helped me block it out. It still hurts, you know, I get phantom pains every so often, but the prosthesis helps, my body actually thinks the artificial neurons in the limb are that of the real one, so the pain isn’t as frequent as it used to be.” Kagura slowly closes her eyes while listening to Mer’ania speak, a quiet sigh escaping soon after the demoness falls silent.

  “The day I lost everything, it… It honestly feels like a blur, Mer… One moment I was asleep happily, the next I was being woken up and told I had to run… I ran, as fast as a seven year old could, but it wasn’t enough, I was hit by the shockwaves of an explosion, and I was thrown forward, landing some feet away from where I was… My arm was burned, bleeding, and I was in a lot of pain, but I quickly passed out because of the pain… I don’t know how long I was asleep, no one ever told me, I just remember waking up in the hospital…” Mer’ania remains silent as she listens to Kagura speak, this part of her past being news to her.

  “I was scared, but what seven year old wouldn’t be if they suddenly woke up in a hospital. I remembered what happened, even before they told me I could see it on their faces, their pity for me… Those Earthener bastards took my parents from me… They took so much from so many people that night… For a while I’d wondered where I’d end up once I got out of the hospital, but eventually I just conceded that if I’m not on Earth, wherever I’m sent is better than where I could’ve been. Though… A week before discharge, mama showed up suddenly. She revealed she had adopted me, that she rescued me from Earth amidst the chaos of the battle, brought me to Sanctus for medical care.”

  “Kagura, that’s horrible… I know you’d said that Professor Melangreve and Nev’aran adopted you, but… I never knew how your birth parents died…” Speaking quietly, despite the common area being empty due to classes, Mer’ania slowly stands before moving to Kagura and pulling her into an embrace. “I can’t believe those monsters could be so heartless…”

  “Yeah, well, some humans are like that… Now you know why seeing the Eartheners gives me so much anxiety, Mer’ania… They killed my parents, if they start a war here they won’t hesitate to kill, to burn down our cities, if they get the chance at least… What they teach us in class, it’s different when you’re there in person, witnessing everything you loved being burnt to ashes, unable to do anything… We were a few weeks away from moving to Sanctus, we’d begun packing, already had decided where we wanted to settle, and we visited a few times… A whole lot of nothing planning does when things go to hell in an instant.”

  Mer’ania clutches Kagura a little tighter as misty eyes threaten to spill over, but then, suddenly, she perks up, looking as if something just popped into her mind.

  “Hey, Kags? As far as we know, they still don’t know how the Eartheners located Sanctus, right?” She questions, Kagura glancing up to her before nodding.

  “Mama said they’re looking into it, trying to figure out how they got here… Why do you ask?” The demoness gently release Kagura before taking her hand, a determined expression forming on her face.

  “We’re going to the library, I have an idea.”

  ~

  “So what exactly is this idea of yours, Mer?” Kagura questions as she watches Mer’ania glide through rows of books, picking out specific ones and piling them on a table near the shorter brunette.

  “I remembered hearing about older forms of magic that are infrequently used nowadays, given that better spells had been developed, so I was thinking what if there’s an older spell that could be used to track a specific person to a location?” Mer’ania says, settling in at the table before opening one of the books in the stack.

  “What, like some sort of tracking device, but a spell? If there is such magic, you’d think it would be used more often, I mean tracking is rather useful.” Mer’ania shrugs slightly before flipping through pages of the book, a slight frown forming when she doesn’t find any info of use. She sifts through two more books before finding what she wanted, the book being slid to Kagura who looks over the page.

  “Rudimentary Tracking Spell… Wait… You don’t think they used this to track someone to Sanctus, and then used that info to teleport here?” The demoness nods before sliding the book back over to herself and over the page, quickly getting lost in the contents of the spell.

  “It says here the spell, when used correctly, places a temporary tracking marker on a person, which allows the caster to determine their location at any moment. However, it is not without downsides, the tracker only lasts for a week, and it doesn’t give an exact location, only a general area the person is at… I think this is how they found Sanctus.
They used the spell on someone who they knew would return here, and before the spell wore off they copied down the location of the person. Except if they only recently learned to harness teleportation magic, then that explains why they keep appearing in the air, and in random locations, they don’t have enough info to be exact, nor the skill in using teleportation magic to accurately arrive here.”

  “… Well, now I see why they don’t use that anymore. What’s the use of a tracker that doesn’t let you know exactly where someone is, especially if it wears off after a while.” Kagura says, glancing off to the side for a few moments. “Do you think we should let mama know? I don’t know if they’ve come to this conclusion already themselves, but it would be good to let them know that this is possibly how they figured out where Sanctus is.”

  “It would be a good idea to tell her, she could let the headmistress know, and they can figure out whether this is the right spell or if something else is how they located us… Classes should be getting out, let’s head to your mom’s classroom, we can tell her once class is done.” Kagura nods and helps Mer’ania put the books away, save for the one with the learned info, though she lets the demoness tend to those that belong on taller shelves. The duo then depart the library, weaving their way through the halls and down a flight of stairs before soon arriving at Professor Melangreve’s classroom, just as lessons let out for the day.

  “Oh, hello you two, color me surprised.” Rebecca smiles over at Kagura and Mer’ania as they enter the classroom and make their way over, the short brunette managing a weak grin of her own. “How are you holding up sweetheart? Dealing with the pain okay?”

  “I’m fine, mama… I took some elixir when I got back to school, then I groaned into my pillow for half an hour until I stopped being annoyed at the pain.” As Kagura speaks her mother chuckles softly, smile growing a little before she looks between the two.