Ziggy

  Ziggy sat on his bed, looking at the magical circle in front of him. Only Aurelia was in the room, dusting off the wardrobes, and the sounds of her cleaning made him enter almost a meditative state.

  He thought back on the lessons that Master Meriel taught them, but he couldn't quite understand certain parts at all. But that was how Meriel was these days: so distracted, almost as if every single thing that was happening in real time seemed too quick for him, and every sentence that Meriel said was a bit confused.

  Meriel didn't speak that much back when they were closed in that magical bubble; he probably underestimated how intelligent Ziggy was, and Ziggy couldn't quite get himself to blame his master for a fault like that. He was a beast after all, and it took entering human society to understand how they viewed things.

  Now that he was here, though, he understood more than ever, and he also understood just how unwell Meriel was. It was strange for him to become so attached to the child that he met on his first day entering the city. It wasn't like Ziggy disliked Mary; quite the opposite, in fact. Though he didn't like how his master thought of them as if they were the same age.

  He did let Mary think that he was her equal at times, of course, but it wasn't quite the truth.

  Meriel just decided that she would be the second most important thing in the world for him. Or maybe even the first. Ziggy wasn't even quite so sure whether Meriel liked Mary or Ziggy more now. Though he hoped that spending so many decades with him would get him at least some of a lead.

  It just showed how much Meriel craved human connection. The first chance he had it, he jumped back into the academy to mingle with the students as well. The two of them were in a history class now of course, and since they were covering current politics, Meriel was keenly interested.

  Ziggy couldn't quite say the same. Not because he didn't like it—he didn't care, really—but studying history already made him see the patterns and the predicament that the Lavarza kingdom was in. He didn't need to know which country was preparing to strike Lavarza to know that one of them just would.

  He looked at Aurelia again, who now began to mop the floor with a cloth placed on a broom. Ziggy, as always, had to suppress the growing envy whenever he saw her. Of course, she was beautiful, but that wasn't why he was envious, for he was quite pretty himself.

  No, what made him envious was the fact that even though he was so much older, and so more acquainted with Meriel, she was the one that got a large dragon form that could carry people on its back, and secondly that she would get to travel to the elven forest with Meriel.

  It wasn't like Ziggy could just magically grow himself in a week, and so he understood Meriel's need to create a large dragon that could carry him, but he still couldn't fight all the feelings of envy back. He grew in size himself, of course, but not fast enough. He would reach Aurelia's size in a year, maybe two. It was hard to predict.

  Although, she must have been envious of him as well, though he didn't feel like goading her. Being born without the third eye must have sucked, especially since the rest of them could use it. But maybe she would prove herself to be a worthy fighter with just her mana and heart. It was hard to say.

  "Can I help you with something, older brother?" Aurelia's cool voice suddenly snapped Ziggy out of his thoughts.

  "What? Sorry, why?" Ziggy said, stuttering over himself.

  "You were just looking at me so intently, older brother," she said respectfully, bowing her head a little. This was another thing that kind of shut Ziggy's mind off. Being respectful to Meriel was a given, of course. Every dragon should respect its master, and it was a code that was deeply engraved into himself as well. The two of them existed to serve Meriel, and Ziggy would not hesitate to do anything for him, and he expected the same from Aurelia. But why show so much respect to Ziggy himself?

  "I was just wondering about where our master is and how the journey to the elven kingdom will go. You will be the only person in his attendance, you know?"

  "I realize that, older brother. I will do my utmost best to take care of our master and his well-being," she said, giving him a soft smile, a rarity coming from her.

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  He was beginning to learn her personality this week, and although she seemed to be really quiet and always professional, Ziggy had seen through that already. She wasn't just a shy and quiet person, no. She was a fanatic.

  While she upheld her professional persona when Master Meriel was there, there were times when she showed just how crazy about serving she was. Ziggy was what he would consider a really good servant for his master, but he also had his own personality and his own opinions on things. His master's opinions mattered more than his own, of course, but should Meriel ask for it, he would offer his own view on things.

  That wasn't the case for Aurelia as he understood her. She seemed almost obsessed, more than Ziggy ever was. He was a bit like her when he got summoned, but he didn't remember himself being like that.

  "I know you are excited to spend some time with him when he doesn't attend school. You should keep in mind that it won't just be a fun trip. He seeks to find Elsa, his former fianceé.”

  “Indeed. She’s from before you two got locked in the magical bubble, if I recall."

  "Yes, and I don't know much about elves even though I look like one, but I reckon she probably aged in the century. Aged into dust, I mean.”

  “But didn't you two mention that she was a half-elf?" Aurelia asked, putting a finger onto her lips as she thought.

  "Half-elf, yes. And she was already older than Meriel when they met." Ziggy completed her lack of information. "The problem is that half-elves are even rarer than elves. And so we don't know much about them."

  He paused, looking Aurelia over as she still thought and bounced on the soles of her feet. That didn't seem to diminish her excitement at all.

  "You should also remember that it's on the other side of the continent." Ziggy sat and picked up his quill. "Walk over." He motioned for her, and she obediently followed him.

  "This is more or less a map of the Pamthe continent. Meriel taught me this back in the cave. Lavarza is here." He pointed to the very center and drew a small circle there.

  One of the saddest things about Lavarza was that it was so small yet so repressed by its neighboring countries. Ziggy could understand their fear, of course. Being the only country with magic would make anyone shake in their boots, even though they all managed to get their mana in other ways. But none of them were as potent as this one.

  "This small circle is Lavarza, and we have several neighboring countries. The problem is that the Elven Kingdom isn't one of the neighboring countries." Now he pointed to a small half-island all the way to the east of the continent. "This is Egoros, and it's where the elves live. That's where you will have to fly. You'll have to fly to the Vurgi steppe through the Hundred Baronies and then through the three cities. It'll be a long flight, probably at least a week, though I don't know how fast you can fly. And what you find at the end might devastate Meriel. He doesn't want me there, so I won't be able to support him, but you will have to. You can't just be excited about this, Aurelia."

  "But do you really think that our master will be sad with what he finds there?" she pondered, looking down on the ground, deflated.

  "The problem is that I can't predict what you will find there," Ziggy said, and looked her in the eyes. "You'll just have to hope that you manage to find Elsa at all. Even doing that will be a miracle."

  The door suddenly swung open and Meriel walked inside, furious. He didn't even look at the two dragons and instead stormed over to his wardrobe and began throwing things on the ground: cloak, some stale bread he had stored under his clothing, and other items that one would pack for a long trip.

  "Master, what is it?" Aurelia asked before Ziggy could, but Meriel didn't even look at them still. Mary walked into the room shy and quiet and did her best to avoid meeting Ziggy's eyes. He didn't feel like playing guessing games, and if he had to ask somebody, then the person that wasn't his angry master would probably be the better choice. He walked over and grabbed Mary's shoulder.

  "Hey, what happened? Did something go wrong?"

  "No, it's just..." Mary looked at Meriel awkwardly and then back at Ziggy. "We were learning history..

  “And what happened then? What did you learn about?”

  “More or less about the time since he disappeared, and of course we even learned about him. I knew he was legendary, but everyone seemed to love the tale of him almost as much as I did. Either way, then we began learning about what happened after, and though Mr. Meriel only nodded at some parts as if he knew them already, we began talking about the 20 years after the dragon of Mura died."

  Ziggy fought to not roll his eyes at how distractedly she talked, "Get to the point already," he whispered, but he tried to fight his nervousness back. Shouting at her won't help anyone.

  "We began learning about the church and how his former colleague Vivien joined it, and we also learned about how the spell-swords became a thing and magic became a thing of the past."

  "...And that made him this mad?" Ziggy asked, quite confused.

  "It's not just that, it's the fact that, well, apparently, some of his family is responsible. His younger brother, namely, and also Jonathan."

  "Ah." That made sense. So Jonathan—the one that threw Meriel down into that cave Ziggy was born in—was responsible for this as well? Ziggy looked at his master, trying to chew on his thoughts, deciding what he should say.

  "You two, practice what I taught you." Meriel said offhandedly as he threw his last things into a large backpack and then gently pulled Aurelia out of the room by her arm. "I need to go. I need to find Elsa. I need to know if at least one of my goddamn teammates was not conspiring to kill me. Conspiring to end everything I worked on my whole life."