MagiStream

Just sat and read the whole lot in one go. This is fantastic! The worldbuilding is solid and intriguing and I like the way you interpreted the bond between creatures and Magi- it puts me in mind of the bond between humans and daemons in Pullman's His Dark Materials books.

I'm definitely enjoying the interaction between Aran and Johann- regardless of other people saying they believe Johann might betray Aran, I'm kind of shipping it. The keep-mage needs someone to look out for him!

Definitely going to be looking out for updates from you on this, Raneth! Great stuff so far.

Thanks so much for all the comments! Updates will be more common from here on out, I promise.

I must admit, it makes me absurdly happy when people ship my characters.

On with the story!

Chapter 16

The warmth from the strange green room surrounded Aran, a lulling sense of comfort, but he couldn’t sleep.

At least Johann wasn’t having that problem. The other man lay with his head on Leath as a pillow, the direcore’s tail thumping every few seconds as he slept too, perhaps dreaming of flying.

Aran knew he should rest. But his mind was too full of uncertainties, the meaning of what he had to do.

What did it mean to be a mage? He patted Aurora’s mane while he thought. He had struggled with the meaning of what he was doing since beginning this exam. Just getting the title, bonding with creatures…that was important. But it wasn’t the only reason he was doing this.

His mother had brought him to the Keep to learn magic. But it was more than just learning magic, too. After all, not everyone who used magic, or even mastered it, became a mage.

Why here? Why a dragon? It still didn’t make any sense. What did Kelly know, or what had she learned during her exam, that Aran was still lacking?

He wished he knew why he still felt like a student rather than a real mage. Even now, when he had a goal in front of him, he still felt unsure. He was so close, but he didn’t feel it.

He realized with a sigh that the only time he had ever truly felt sure was his first year, with Aurora. After that he had just kept learning about all the things he didn’t know. Like now, with the blood mages, and the history of magical creatures. There was too much in the world to understand everything.

He smiled when Johann mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep. He would probably just say Aran was overthinking things. He probably was.

Aran leaned back against the stone wall, his legs out of in front of him. He needed to stop worrying about it, at least for now. He didn’t want to start his journey exhausted. Like he told Kelsay, he had to be ready. He would sleep, then he and Johann would prepare.

He closed his eyes, willing sleep to come. In his dreams, he traveled through snow, a formless creature he couldn’t identify at his side.

***

“I wish I had brought the skis,” Johann said. “But I didn’t expect this.”

“Skis would just weigh us down,” Aran said. “I intend to fly as much as we can.”

They stood once again at the edge of the frozen ocean, Kelsay, Kalien and the elder beside them. Kalien held out a bag of food, which from the way Leath sniffed at it must be full of frozen meat. Kelsay and Aran had already tied feedbags full of the seeds of the strange grass from the green room to Aurora’s bag for the pegasus. Another bag was full of butter churned from the milk of the nulorns.

“If I am right,” the elder said, “the dragon will be drawn to you. I do not anticipate your journey taking long. Range the frozen sea. Return if your food runs out, because there is none over the ice.”

“What about fish?” Johann asked.

“Aurora won’t eat fish, but that might help,” Aran said. It wasn’t the food he was worried about. It was his creatures. If the cold was too much for them, he intended to send them back here. There was no way he would endanger them for this. Aurora had more feathers to protect her from cold, but there was no food for her out there. Leath could eat almost anything, but he was meant for the warm jungles of Raza, not the bitter cold of a frozen ocean.

Then again, he wasn’t meant for that either.

“Alright,” Johann said. He met Aran’s eyes and patted him on the back. “Home before supper, huh?”

“I will send Shale to find you if you are not back soon,” Kalien said. Aran thought he detected a hint of actual concern in the man’s voice, but he could be imagining it.

“Lead them,” the elder said, and her ice phoenix leapt from her arm, frozen wings stretching wide. Leath followed it with his eyes, wagging his tail.

Then Aran and Johann stepped out onto the ice, white and cold stretching as far as they could see.

The elder’s phoenix squawked, flying higher, its voice a flat keen on the open ice. The open ocean. Bitter cold air washed over Aran, and he wrapped his scarf tighter around his mouth. The cold, dry air made his eyes water, and the tears froze immediately.

“C’mon, Aran, don’t slow down,” Johann said. The dark-haired man was as well-bundled as Aran was, and he spread his arms out like he didn’t feel the biting wind. “We’re on top of the world! Be excited!”

Aran had to smile beneath his scarf. To Johann, this was an adventure. Maybe that was how he should be feeling too.

When he had first started at the Keep, he had felt like it was all an adventure. A boat trip with his mother, and then Aurora, his new creature. He had his exams, safe, secure exams where his teachers would rescue him if anything went wrong. He learned about the world, about creatures and about his magic, and had dreamed about journeys like this one.

Maybe that was part of it. All of that had been just tests, puzzles, games. This was real.

Aurora spread her wings, as if testing the air. A query went through the magic band he shared with her—she wanted to fly. Leath barked, as if in agreement.

“Johann,” Aran called over the constant wind. His breath plumed in front of him. “What say we head up, and really follow the phoenix?”

Johann nodded. “Sure. Keep your scarf tight—the air will be colder further up, and right now its just on the cusp of being dangerous.” Aran nodded. Johann was his guide. For all his enthusiasm, he knew what he was doing.

Aran wasn’t the only one who had to keep them both safe.

Johann mounted Aurora, being careful not to dislodge the bags the pegasus had hanging from her saddle. Leath barked happily when they took to the air. Despite the cold, the wolf seemed to love the flat expanse—maybe he saw it as an invitation to go as fast as he could, where there no trees or other distractions to slow him down.

“Calm down, Leath,” Aran patted his direcore’s head. “We have to stay with Aurora and Johann. And the phoenix.” He looked up to where the fiery blue bird weaved in the air ahead of them. The phoenix flew faster when they took to the air, and wind whistled in Aran’s ears.

The snow below really did look like an ocean. It felt alien, surreal, like flying over a blank page. Even oceans had swells and dips, and color. The frozen ocean was just a featureless plain.

“Empty, isn’t it?” Johann shouted.

Aran nodded. Empty and alone. He didn’t like it. He couldn’t imagine anything, even an ice dragon, wanting to live out here.

With a twist of his magic, he bound the air between him and Johann. “This will make it easier to talk,” he said, and then sent a calming guide to Aurora when Johann almost jerked out of the saddle in surprise.

“MAGIC?” he shouted, Aran wincing, and then, quieter, “this is magic, so we can hear each other, right?”

“Yes.” Aran breathed deep, then coughed when the cold air pained his lungs.

“Fly lower,” Johann said. “This cold is dangerous.”

“Down, Leath, just…” Aran blinked, dizziness assailing him. The ground was white, and so was the sky. He didn’t know how low, or how high, he had to go. His heart thudded in his chest. Maybe flying had been a bad idea.

No. Think. “Follow me,” he said to Johann, and sent out tendrils of air magic. When they struck the ground, which was really water, he got his sense of the world back. Their small group flew on, a mere dozen feet off the ground to avoid the worst of the cold, fighting through the wind. The phoenix never faltered.

Aran called on his sense of water magic, shuddering when he realized the ice beneath them was inches, or maybe even feet, thick. Beneath it, an ocean waited. He wondered if anything lived under that ice, or if it was just too cold. Ahead of them, for all he knew, could really be the top of the world like Johann had said.

He shivered. It was so cold, and so strange here. Why had the dragon come here?

“Hey,” Johann said after what felt like hours, but could have just been minutes after their silent, featureless flight. Aran looked over at the bundled form of his friend flying on Aurora. “So, tell me about the Keep. Or something. This place feels so alien.”

Aran smiled. At least he wasn’t the only one disturbed by the quiet emptiness. He guided Leath closer, the two creatures flying wingtip to wingtip. Leath gave a happy bark.

“Well…What do you want to know?” he asked, uncertain where to start. “You visited it, right? What did you think?”

“Why did you go?” Johann asked. “What made you decide to be a mage?”

Aran thought back, filling his mind with images of the Keep surrounded by spring blooms, when he had first arrived. He gave a small smile at the memory of his mother, so grateful to be off the ship after their long weeks long voyage from Callisto. “I had magic,” he said, Leath’s ears flicking. “Strong magic. Nothing unheard of, of course, but enough that everyone in my hometown wanted me to go to the Keep. I would have been quite the nuisance otherwise.”

His smile faded. He hadn’t been back to Callisto since his mother died. He wondered how they all fared. His neighbor had been the first to recommend he go to the Keep, after a small stone carving project of his had scooped out gouges in her stone wall that had faced the sea.

Odd, to think he had lived by the ocean all his life, and his final exam had him flying over a frozen one like this. No motion, no tides, no life, save for him, his creatures, and Johann. And a lone dragon, somewhere in the distance.

“Kelly was kind of the same,” Johann said with a smile. “She would freeze things—on purpose, I think, though she claimed it wasn’t. And she always loved taking care of animals when she found them. We don’t keep horses here, though sometimes people would come down with reindeer, or dogsledders would come by from Trilvanth. She loved that. I did too.”

Aran nodded. “What did you do, after you came back from the Keep? I mean, life must have been nice in Arkene.”

Johann chuckled. “Not really. I took care of my mother.” His voice dropped, just slightly. “I helped out around town, and learned how to live in Arkene. When I got older, I guess while you and Kelly were training your creatures,” he patted Aurora, “I was learning how to hunt, trap, and ski. People in Arkene don’t do much else. Logging, too, though that never appealed to me.”

Aran didn’t know whether or not he should feel bad. It didn’t sound like a bad life—but Johann spoke of it as though it were tremendously boring. He supposed that compared to the life of a mage, it was.

“It must have been relaxing, though,” Aran said. “No exams, no constant pressure—”

“No one to help when I needed it, no magic, no creatures, and in winter, nothing to do except sit inside and stare at the walls,” Johann said. “You and Aurora and Leath are the most exciting thing to happen in Nyack for years. Everything else is weddings for people who aren’t me, or funerals.” The words stung, but Johann didn’t speak with any bitterness. Just resignation.

“I’m sorry,” Aran said after a deadening silence. “I guess…”

“Now you see why I wanted to go to the Keep,” Johann said. “I knew I didn’t have much magic, or any, really. But I wanted to see it. My family never had the money to travel, and when my mother got sick, that was it.” Aran wanted to ask what happened to his father, but didn’t. Johann answered his thoughts anyway.

“My father died in an accident—struck by a falling tree branch. Hence why I never wanted to be a logger like him.” Aran’s stomach flipped. “And I guess…even if I had magic, I wouldn’t have stayed. I had to take care of my mother anyway. So it’s not so bad. And now, I get to hang out with a mage. So it works out.” He looked over and grinned, scratching Aurora’s ears. The pegasus sent a happy sensation of contentment through her link to Aran.

Aran smiled back. “I’m glad you’re alright, after all that.”

“I mean, I suppose I'm doing well,” Johann said. “I mean, I do whatever is expected of me, which isn't much in Nyack. But since my mother died, and everyone my age is either married or has left..." he shrugged, a slow roll of the shoulders as he held on to Aurora's mane. "I guess I feel like I'm not doing enough, if that makes sense. To make my own life."

Aran nodded. He knew how that felt. He wondered why talk of death had come up at all—thoughts of his mother, and Johann’s parents. At least Johann had known his father.

Maybe it was because of the dead, frozen ocean they flew over. “I wonder what it looked like before,” Aran said, waving an arm to indicate the featureless expanse. “It can’t always have been like this.”

“Legends say Arkene froze over eons ago, long before Archex and Celeste traveled through. They say it used to be beautiful, a paradise, and then the weather turned and the glaciers came.” Johann shook his head. “Probably just the ramblings of old drunks.”

“Maybe not,” Aran said. “Clearly there was an ocean here, once.” Maybe it had even looked like his home on the coast.

“I suppose we’ll never know,” Johann said.

Aran wanted to ask if Johann would visit his hometown after this was all over. It would be a nice change for the other man, and a good way to show his new friend what life was like down south.

Of course, before he could ask, he had to complete his task. It was too soon to make plans like that for the future. Or maybe just too hopeful.

Suddenly the ice phoenix they were following shrieked, the sound sharp and piercing. It spread its wings wide, then flapped hard, turning into an icy comet as it flew faster.

“Whoa,” Johann said. “Aran, be careful. The cold will cut faster if we go quicker.”

Aran nodded, his jaw tense. “I know.” His face was already going numb. But he had to follow.

In the distance, something magic thrummed.

“Come on, Leath,” he said, and the direcore whuffed in agreement. With a flap of his wings that sent blisteringly cold air washing over Aran, Leath dove forward. Aurora pulled up behind them, Johann’s knuckles white as he clung to her mane.

“It’s been half a day,” Johann said, his voice blessedly calm in Aran’s ears even as Aurora fell further back. “Don’t use up your energy chasing it. Remember, we have to return, too.”

“I know,” Aran said, taking a deep breath of icy air that hurt his lungs. He wasn’t going to make a foolish mistake.

But he had to bond with this dragon. This test would end. Getting back would be easy once he had a dragon with him. He urged Leath on faster.

Ahead, the sensation of magic grew stronger. A black speck came into shape on the horizon.

________

TBC

Comments and critique always appreciated!

Thanks for the comment! Here is the next chapter.

Chapter 17

"Aran," Johann said, his voice a warning.

"I know," he said. "I see it." His heart began to race, the cold around him fading just slightly as excitement took hold, along with determination. The elder's ice phoenix flashed ahead, toward the dark speck, and gave a keening cry that urged Aran on.

He would be a mage. He would also help the strange blood mages, and meet the first ice dragon to ever have existed.

"Come on," he said, and Johann nodded. He called to Aurora and Leath with magic, and picked up speed, the air rushing in his ears.

The cold became too much, cutting like a knife through the heavy clothing he wore. He called up air magic, infusing it with just a bit of heat, and warmed Leath and Aurora's wings. Leath gave a grateful whine.

When all this was over, he would bring Leath to Callisto, and then to the deep jungles of Raza, and bask in warm humidity. He would take Aurora, and Johann, too, maybe exploring the warm cave systems in Alasre.

As Aran barreled toward the ice dragon, his body shaking with a mix of cold and excitement, he realized that there was no place for an ice dragon in his dreams of his future. Even now, with his exam staring him in the face, he didn't know what he wanted. He didn't know how to make his own life, like Johann had mentioned.

"C'mon, Aran," Johann said. Aran blinked, realizing that Aurora had pulled ahead. "Stay focused. You alright?"

"Yes." He took in a lungful of cold air. He had to keep going.

The cold began to settle in Aran’s bones as they flew, faster and for longer than he ever had before. His hands curled into stiff claws in Leath’s fur. The moon appeared at the horizon, the white sky dimming to pink. Aran grit his teeth, ignoring the deadening pain of cold and summoning heat every so often to wash over him and Leath, and Johann and Aurora. This was his exam. The dragon wouldn’t get away this time. He would complete it, and go home.

Up ahead, the speck began to form into the unmistakable shape of a dragon.

Aurora whinnied, the sound another warning. The dragon’s enormous wings stretched across the sky, and air circulated in cold currents around its body, a magic Aran could sense even at this distance.

The dragon was getting bigger far faster than it should be. Aran figured it out just as the phoenix shrieked and Johann shouted. “Aran, it’s coming for us fast, dive!”

Aran sucked in a breath of freezing air as Leath angled his body toward the ground, and the cold cut like swords now as he plummeted toward the frozen ocean. Overhead, the air rushed in a sudden storm of the approaching dragon, the creature moving faster than Aran thought possible.

Aran braced himself, his heart pounding as he expected to crash through ice into a shock of cold death. He twisted his magic, calling all the strength he had, to send a wind shear across the frozen surface, helping Leath to wing over the still air and slide into a slow crash onto the ice that sent the white of the ice and the darkening sky overhead spinning end over end. Leath whimpered, and Aran lay stunned, his heart jumping in his chest.

Above him, the black dragon covered the sky. It reminded him of a time back at home in Callisto, watching the gulls fly overhead toward the ocean, a silent peace broken only by the rush of waves. But there were no waves here, and the dragon itself was as large as an entire flock of gulls. Or larger.

Leath whined again, and Aran realized his direcore was nuzzling him, Leath’s nose icy cold.

“Aran!” Johann shouted. “Can you get up?” The dark haired man stood over him, and Aran blinked, pain blooming in his head. He took Johann’s hand, sitting up to see that Aurora stood next to Leath. Saddlebags full of fruit and their butter had spilled onto the ice, and he blinked hard, vertigo making the world spin again.

“It’s watching us,” Johann said. Aran craned his neck, slowly shaking off the shock of the crash landing. Overhead, the dragon circled, the only dark shape in a world of blinding lightness. Aran had never been to a desert, but he had talked to mages who had seen vultures circling, and the comparison was apt.

“No,” Aran said. Johann looked down to him. “It can’t want to kill us. It can’t end like this.”

“What makes you think it would eat us?” Johann said. “We’re probably no bigger than its teeth.”

“Then why…?” The dragon kept circling, getting no lower and no higher. The elder’s words echoed in his head, filling him with a primal need to run. A drop of his blood. The dragon might know. It might want more than a drop.

Aran’s legs tensed.

Then a shrill shriek pierced the air. The phoenix was flying around the beast’s head, like a gnat around the head of a horse. Arcing trails of blue flame followed the dragon, and the beast’s eye tracked the smaller creature’s movements. But it didn’t attack.

“Do you think it knows the phoenix?” Johann asked. “Or remembers?”

“I don’t know.” Aran spoke through tight anxiety that threatened to bloom into panic. There was so much he didn’t know.

“Aran, it might leave,” Johann said. “We should…” he met Aran’s eyes. “You should do something. Go on. It’s now or never. If we stay out here overnight…I’m not sure its survivable, Aran, unless we have your magic.”

His magic. He had the blood of the one who had created this dragon, or so the elder said. He was supposed to bond with it. He was supposed to become a mage.

A mage, or a blood mage? His stomach flipped at the thought.

“C’mon, Aran,” Johann said. Het put a warm hand on Aran’s shoulder, and pointed up at the dragon. “Maybe its waiting for you.”

His body sizzled with nerves, and he swallowed hard. His magical bonds with Aurora and Leath thrummed in his awareness, and Leath barked once. Aurora strode over to him, blowing out a breath that was a rush of warm air. It was a familiar greeting, one she had always used when he came to get her in the stables.

He would be a mage. This was it. But…

“What if I fail? What if I can’t become a mage?”

Johann actually laughed. “Aran, are you seriously worried about that right now? You are a mage, damnit. Now go be a mage and help that dragon!”

Aran blinked, Johann’s words erasing the last of the shock from the fall and easing the weight on his shoulders. He couldn’t fail the exam. He had learned so much already, and come so far.

Whatever happened here, now, was so much more than just his exam.

“You’re right,” he said, the cold air entering his lungs as he took a deep breath. He coughed, and Johann steadied him. “You’re right. I have to…I have to try, at least.” He strode forward, away from Johann, although the dark haired man followed him, one step behind. Aran didn’t mind.

He gathered his magic, not magic associated with air, or fire, or earth. Just magic, the magic that every student gathered when searching for an egg in the stream, or when sensing for the skill of another mage.

The dragon filled his senses. And a great, dark eye focused on him.

“Aran…” Johann warned, and then the world shook as the dragon plummeted, folding its wings and landing hard on the ice. Aran slipped, Johann grabbing his arm to keep him on his feet. Aran was shocked when the ice didn’t crack beneath the great beast’s feet.

The dragon towered over them both, its head as high as the tallest tower in the keep and its claws digging foot-deep furrows in the ice. Its body blocked the skyline, and freezing air rushed over Aran as it breathed in and out.

He wondered what sort of creature it had been before it had become what it was now.

“Hello,” he said, wishing the elder had told him if this dragon had ever had a name. “I am Aran.” He reached out with his senses, with his magic, the way every mage was trained to approach a magical creature.

Immediately he was swept away on a current of overwhelming magic, and the world around him vanished.

***
The ocean was warm once, when the world was a very different place.

Water lapped at Aran’s stomach, and green algae floated in a mat nearby, like a blanket over the ocean. He shut his eyes tight, then opened them, but the vision didn’t change.

“Johann?” he called. No answer. Water splashed as he turned. “Aurora? Leath!”

He tried to sense for them and almost fell from the overwhelming pull of the world. Magic surrounded him in a constant whorl, and he pulled away before completely losing himself again.

He knew enough from his studies to know that this wasn’t real. “Illusion, illusion, illusion,” he muttered, the words a mantra, but it felt like more than just that. It was like being a child again, his magic unmoored by the familiar presence of his creatures, a constant strength that he couldn’t control or use properly. And worse—he was alone. The magic around him erased the presence of anything else.

It was the dragon. It had to be. This is why the elder wanted him to tame it, and this was why it had flown over the countryside, lost without its mage.

Magical creatures anchored the magic of mages. And for creatures like this one, the first of its kind, a mage must anchor it too.

A wind picked up, an impossibly warm breeze that whispered his name. He turned, but it was gone as soon as it had come, the ocean he stood in still and undisturbed.

But not entirely. A rock jutted from the surface of the water, and atop it sat a creature Aran had never seen before. It had a flat head and long claws that clung to the rock, along with a long, sinuous tail that flicked as Aran approached, the water not rippling as he walked.

It turned its head, and he saw intelligence, along with age. It had the same eye as before.

It was the dragon.

Aran took a breath, pain stabbing into his lungs from somewhere far away. He shivered, putting a hand to his chest, where his heart beat weakly. Something was wrong, he knew, wrong with him somewhere far away, but the magic began to churn and erased even that.

He had to bond with the dragon. That was all he had left, and then he would be a mage. He could give it a drop of his blood, and bond with it, and get home. Back to the keep, back to visits with Kelly and Julius.

Kelly and Julius, who were living together while Aran had no one. Back to the keep, where other students, too, would be leaving as they graduated, their parents there to celebrate. Aran’s mother wouldn’t be. Theo would no longer be his mentor. Belmos would train other young students.

What was there for him, exactly?

The dragon, only a lizard now, blinked. It bared its teeth, showing a long row of fangs.

It didn’t matter. He had to do this.

“Who are you?” he asked the dragon. “Was this all you were, before you became a dragon?”

Is this all you are, before you become a mage? The voice hammered in his mind, and the lizard lunged for his hand, sinking its fangs deep into his fingers.

Aran gasped. The wind howled his name again, with Johann’s voice, and the magic around him roiled. He reached for it, reaching for the lizard that the magic had, thousands of years before, changed into a dragon.

Once again, he was swept away. This time, though, it was in magic he understood—the magic of a bond with a creature.

Except there was one change. The blood it had taken from him, from his hands in the vision, marked the bond, and he followed it, letting it guide him along the same type of bridge of magic that anchored him to Aurora, to Leath. It carried magic of its own, magic more pure than any other he had seen before. A primal magic that carried information between him and the dragon.

In his mind, he saw it again. A wolf, like Shale, consuming a mage. A moose cropping grass where a mage had fallen years before. A lizard of a species long forgotten as the glaciers had begun to cover the northern seas, taking blood offered by a mage, and becoming a new species that could survive.

Aran didn’t know where magic had begun. But in magical creatures, he could see how it was maintained. The magic around him began to slow, the confusion and isolation settling as the blood thinned into knowledge.

The dragon was no longer alone.

He grabbed the magic, forming a bridge between the dragon and himself. Immediately he was assailed with power, dizzied, as the dragon filled his sense. He had done it. He would be a mage.

The dragon was ancient. Wiser by far than Aran. And the magic, accumulated from a mage who had transformed a creature and then from living in a changing world for thousands of years, was too much.

A lesson from Theo echoed in his mind. “Not every mage can bond with every creature. Some are too powerful. The bond will never last.”

So why had they sent him to do this?

Aran’s sense of self began to fray, and the ocean, the lizard, and everything else faded into freezing cold.


___________________________________

TBC

Comments always appreciated!

He can't die not now............ I wonder.............

*paces eagerly*

Thanks for all the comments, guys! This is the last part, and the epilogue. I hope you all enjoyed the story!

______________________

Chapter 18

The magic hammered in his mind with both force and sound, and Aran couldn’t open his eyes. He cast out for Leath, for Aurora, but there was nothing except the overwhelming sense of the dragon.

Someone, probably Leath, whimpered. And Aurora was whinnying, screaming, a sound he never wanted to hear.

“Aran!” the same voice he had heard on the wind called his name. Johann. “Aran, get up!” His world shook, but he couldn’t find the strength to respond to Johann shaking him.

Freezing air washed over him, sending a deeper blackness than even closed eyes could manage, threatening his vision. The dragon. His dragon.

The dragon’s magic was burning out his ties to his other creatures. This dragon was no powerful creature that was hard to handle. She was beyond Aran’s ability, so far beyond him that it hurt. Even with the blood, with the magic no longer wild, it was too much. This was the first creature of an entire species.

Aran had passed his exam. But nothing felt different. He was even more alone than before. He was no more a mage than when he had first left the Keep.

Something flashed through the bond—concern, maybe. Apology.

“Damnit!” Johann was shouting now, but his voice sounded far away. “You’re killing him! Let him go!”

The bond shivered, and somehow, Aran saw Johann through the dragon’s eyes. A small, tiny, dark haired man, standing over the prone form of a blond man laying on the icy expanse. Himself. Blood trickled onto the snow from his hand, more blood than he had expected, and had frozen there in red ice.

“Let him go!” Johann shouted. “You want blood, take mine!”

The world blackened for a moment, the dragon blinking. In his mind, Aran fought for consciousness, for his own dream. Something like Kelly, Julius, and his future. A mage who would travel the world, learn about all the creatures he could. He saw himself, an old man, wandering the ice with Aurora by his side, delving into forests with Leath, and finding new creatures, and new people, every step of the way. Learning more about blood mages, perhaps, but not just in Arkene. Everywhere. That was what a mage was.

A question flowed through the bond, more than a question, an emotion that had bound up in it concern, apology, knowledge, and something else.

Acceptance. And a memory.

The dragon’s old master. A tall man with dark hair, but his features reminded Aran of himself. He flew on the dragon’s back, against a sky of stars, the milky way splashed across the sky. He stood inside the cave system, surrounded by people like Kalien, people with the strange, warped features of magical creatures, and their companions, direwolves and arkenian kitsunes and creatures Aran didn't even recognize. A fire burned brightly while the dragon enjoyed the company through her blood bond with her mage while he waited outside. The caves were filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of blood mages. Next to her mage stood a tiny girl—the elder's ancestor.

There were so few now, and the dragon saw this through Aran and despaired.

And then she waited.

Aran was thrown back to himself, gasping for breath. He forced his eyes open, and Johann was there.

“Aran?” he put his hands on Aran’s shoulders, shaking him. “Aran, tell me you’re alright. Do you have the dragon?” Johann’s face was pale, his dark eyes wide with concern.

Aran fought for breath even as he fought for the words he wanted to say, the blast of knowledge the dragon had given him heavy on his mind.

He had bonded with an ice dragon. It was a bond of magic, but she was used to so much more. And she had a home, a home among blood mages, where bonds between creatures and their magi were different but just as strong.

It could be his home. But he had one already. Not at the Keep, but with Leath and Aurora. He had his life, his own desires. And she had hers, that did not match.

He finally understood. He was already a mage. He didn’t need her for that. And she needed something different than what he, a keep mage, could offer.

“Do you want to be a mage, Johann?” he managed, his lips cracking as he spoke. He tasted copper. “You should exchange blood. Just a little. It will be best…” he took a breath of freezing air. “It will be best for her. And you. Your choice.”

“Aran…” Johann stared down at him, then looked to the dragon, and once again Aran saw him through her eyes. A young man with the barest spark of magic, but she could kindle it into something far more. She was the first among a species. She could make a mage of anyone, if they wished it.

But only with blood. A different kind of mage.

The magic sent a jolt of pain through Aran, and he fought to hold on. He caught the end of Johann’s question. “…you sure, Aran?”

“Do it,” Aran said. “It’s for the best.”

“But what about you? What about becoming a mage?”

Aran sighed, shifting his stiff neck and looking to where Aurora stood, her nostrils soft against his bloodied hand. Leath, he realized through weakness and pain, was lying by his side, keeping him warm.

“I am a mage,” he said. “If you want to be one, go ahead.”

Johann stared down at him, his eyes searching while the cold air stood deathly still. The dragon waited, magic pounding in time with Aran’s heart. The world around him spun, and he fought to stay awake.

“Please, Johann,” he said.

Then finally, Johann nodded.

Aran closed his eyes, watching the world through the dragon’s eyes one last time.

Johann strode toward the dragon, his shoulders tense but his steps long. He stopped, staring up at her. “Take me,” he said. He held out an arm. “Leave Aran alone. I’ll be your mage.”

The world stilled, and then Aran felt a jolt of pain, but this wasn’t his. The dragon had driven one of her own claws into her palm, spilling a drop of blood. Then she reached her claws toward Johann, who shivered but stood his ground.

Another sensation filled Aran, of gratitude. In his mind he saw the dragon, a small form, nearly a hatchling, and a blond man who looked much like him. He patted her on the head.

“You will be an ice dragon,” the man said. “A great, brave species. Your home waters will freeze, but you won’t mind, will you, little Glaciette?”

Aran smiled. Then the magic left him, along with a heavy word.

Goodbye.

Cold and pain filled his body, but so did the warmth of his bonds with his creatures, Aurora and Leath. The familiarity soothed him as he slipped into unconsciousness, his eyes closing on the image of Johann dipping his finger into the drop of Glaciette’s blood and bringing it carefully to his lips.

***
What does it mean to be a mage? Well, Aran, that’s a tough question. What do you think it means? Theo’s voice echoed among the chirps of birds in the trees, and every so often Aran made out the iconic sound of a velox. They were so common, but he had never had luck catching one.

“I don’t know.” His voice was young, a boy’s. “Powerful magic. Powerful creatures. You know everything!”

“Not really, Aran.” Theo laughed. “This will make more sense when you’re older. But being a mage…well, becoming a mage is just the first step into the path of learning just how much out there, there is to learn.”
***
Warmth filled his body, and for a moment Aran wondered if he had died.

No. In his consciousness, Leath and Aurora’s magic bands thrummed. His magic was raw, and it took him a moment of flailing a frayed connection like a severed limb until he realized the dragon was gone. Glaciette.

Was it the magic bond, or the blood bond, that had given him her name in that brief moment of connection? He didn’t know. Just another thing he would have to learn.

“Keep mage.” The voice was familiar, Kalien’s growl. “You live.”

Aran forced his eyes open to the sight of a slate gray stone ceiling and the flickering shadows of a burning fire. His back protested with pain when he tried to sit up, and Kalien filled his view, his fangs flashing in the light.

“Stay down,” he said. “The elder says rest. You traveled a long way, and have slept for long, too."

“Where’s Johann?” Aran asked, pushing Kalien’s hand away. The room he sat in swam, and he took a breath and closed his eyes as the headache bloomed. Magic fatigue, or maybe hunger. His muscles shook, and he felt both ravenous and nauseous at once. “What happened?”

“Rest,” Kalien growled. His voice sounded fainter, and Aran realized he was leaving the room “Sleep. Johann brought you back. He will talk to you later.”

Kalien probably didn’t stay because he knew Aran was in no condition to get up. Aran slumped against the ground, the stone uncomfortable and yet beckoning him in his utter fatigue.

He had bonded with an ice dragon. The first ice dragon. And he had lost it.

But he hadn’t lost everything. The memory of the magic was strong in his mind, but fading as fast as winter frost in Callisto. Overwhelming, strong…could he have handled it? He wasn’t sure now. Glaciette. What would have happened if he had kept her as his creature? If he had become the mage to the first ice dragon? If he had made his home amongst blood mages?

Then he remembered the pain, and the fraying bonds with his two creatures, who even now were content and sleeping a room away.

No. He couldn’t have done it. Not if it meant losing Aurora, and Leath. He was a mage, and not because of any bond with an ice dragon. Not because of any exam, or his performance at the Keep throughout the years. Not even because of the Keep itself.

In truth, he hadn’t lost anything at all.

He was a mage. And he would prove it by learning all he could throughout his career as one. He could start here, with the blood mages. There was so much to learn here, and maybe there were others like them, all over the world.

That thought finally settled in his mind. His exam...this exam. He still didn't fully understand why Theo and the Keep masters had sent him on this journey. But whatever they thought they wanted him to discover, he had learned much more.

“Aran?”

His heart beat quicker at the voice, just enough to give him the strength to sit back up and see Johann. The man who had saved him, and taken up a responsibility Aran wasn't suited for.

His friend had the same dark hair, the same casual stance and the same warm smile. But now his eyes gleamed gold, the pupils slit sideways.

Glaciette’s eyes.





Epilogue


Below him, the gleaming white stone of the Keep came into view in the pale winter sun. Aran breathed a sigh of relief, leaning over to pat Aurora’s neck. “Good work, girl,” he said. Leath flew next to them, and barked happily. Glee entered through the bond, an ability to finally relax and shed the weight of the cold that had followed them since entering Arkene.

“Down we go, Aurora,” Aran said. Wind whistled in his ears as Aurora rode familiar winds, and memories of his time at the Keep rose in his mind as they landed on brittle winter grass. The snows hadn’t come yet this year, apparently. It was so different from Arkene.

A young girl in heavy cloth robes moved toward him, offering to take Aurora’s bridle with an outstretched hand, and Aran realized it was still deeply cold. He just didn’t feel it the way he used to.

“Can I stable your creatures, mage?” she asked. She didn’t recognize him, probably a first year student, joined in the past few months.

It still felt strange to be called a mage.

“That’s alright,” he said. “Can you fetch Thane or Master Theo for me?”

She blinked. “Theo’s my mentor!”

He had to smile at that. Theo had already moved on. “I’m glad for you,” he said as she dashed off.

He took a deep breath, which plumed in front of him. He wished Kelly were here. But she had her own life to begin. He could find Julius, though, if he hadn’t began his own exam already. There was a lot of catching up to do before he left.

He had left for his exam not feeling like he belonged. And of course he hadn’t. It was his time to move on too.

“Aran?” the girl was back, peering up at him with wide eyes. “Theo says you should meet archmage Thane by the stables.”

“Thanks.” Aran squared his shoulders. It was time to finish this.

The ageless Thane, of course, had not changed much in the time Aran had been gone, and Thane was still clad in his familiar green robes. The blond archmage raised a hand as Aran approached, grass crunching under his feet.

“Aran,” he said. “Where is your ice dragon?”

“I found one,” Aran replied. “And bonded with her and learned her name. The first of the ice dragons.” Archmage Thane nodded. “And then I let her go.” Thane nodded again, and anxiety Aran hadn’t known was there disappeared. “Did you know?” Aran asked. “About Glaciette, and the blood, and my…”

“I could sense her distress,” Thane said. “I may not be a blood mage, but we magi must begin to guard such things in our way. And every so often, we find a student like you,” Thane said. “One who is talented, but their talent lies not just in magic. You learn well, Aran. You are understanding of others. Tell me. What did you think of learning of the bloody history of magical creatures? It is one few know.”

“Why?” Aran asked. “Why do so few know?”

“Because dark magic stems from blood magic,” Thane said. “Few can be trusted with such knowledge. But some can. Ones we call archmagi. Ones who can be trusted to study it, without resorting to lust for power that has driven the wars we’ve seen in the past.”

Aran paused. Then the words sank in.

“Archmagi…”

“Archmagi create Keeps of their own, at times. Or they simply choose to study what most others cannot. A kind man like you, one descended of one of the most powerful archmagi in history, though he may have been a blood mage…I trust you will decide what is right for you. Your path is open.”

Aran blinked in shock. Archmage. That was why. This hadn’t been a typical mage exam. Thane had been testing him…as an archmage.

“What if I had failed?” he blurted. “What if you were wrong? How did you know my ancestor…”

Thane shook his head. “I only knew after Glaciette became angry from the loss of her partner. Her magic sought blood. Yours and others matched, as there are many descended from one who was young ages ago. But only you were one that I trusted. Who was ready. We need magi to begin to shoulder the blood magi’s old burden. There are so few of them now.”

The thought sent a heavy sadness through Aran’s body, a memory of Glaciette's pain. “But…” Aran took a breath, patting Aurora. “Why trust me, then?”

“I was right, wasn’t I?” Thane said with a smile. A shadow covered them suddenly, making Thane crane his neck toward the sky. “Just as you trusted your friend up there.”

Aran smiled and looked up at the shape of Glaciette. It had taken him long enough. He sent up air magic, so he could hear Johann. “Is that the Keep?” Johann’s voice carried down from above, audible to both Thane and Aran.

“That’s it,” he said. “Be careful. Try to land by the stables, where I am.”

“Please don’t scare any of the creatures,” Thane said, his voice dry.

“We’ll try,” Johann said. Aran grinned, meeting Thane’s eyes.

“I may have let her go,” Aran said. “But she did choose someone else. A new blood mage.”

Thane smiled. “I'm glad to hear it. I hope you will begin to understand why I chose you. Perhaps you will make other such choices one day. You have a long career ahead of you, and much to learn.”

Aran had been nervous at first upon seeing Johann. One look into those eyes and it was obvious Johann wasn’t fully human, not anymore. For a moment, he had been afraid he had made the the wrong choice.

But there was nothing to fear. He was the same Johann, albeit with a new appreciation for cold beyond even what he had before, and a keen understanding of history—one shared by Glaciette.

And even after all that, as a new blood mage, he wanted to visit the Keep, just like he had before. And Aran would show him, just as he had said he would.

And then Aran would return to Arkene with Johann. This time, as an archmage, and the thought steeled his shoulders. He would help ease the burden of the blood magi, in his own way. He would study and guard the secrets, and history, of magical creatures.

Thane was right. He still had so much to learn. And along with Johann and Glaciette, he looked forward to starting.

______________________

The End

Comments and critique always appreciated! I probably need to go through and make some edits at some point.

Simply wonderful. But I do wonder what happens next. Perhaps it is the book worm in me.