In Part 1 (Ch. 1-5), we met our Static bookworm narrator Emilie and her friends: the active Mage Jess, the shy Wizard Shannon, and the enthusiastic and Dynamic Alex. But when Emilie was set to research her favorite true dragons, she read a mysterious note saying that she was a true dragon herself.
To watch a record, you need a projector. To use a projector, you need magic. Aspect magic. True dragons are still Static, so normally I’d still need someone to operate the projector for me. Thankfully, not all magic engineering at the university focuses on Dynamic people.
I don’t know how or why, but someone from the university managed to invent a button that can turn magic things on or off. He gave his first version to the Defense Force when he was done with it, so now Static kids can use the projectors. Which works out great, because I kinda mumble when I’m thinking hard about something and I don’t want anyone listening in while I watch the DF’s Dragon records and cross-reference them with the Mymoir.
Thankfully, whoever sorted the stacks of records put cards on top labeled with the name of the “monster” in question. The Dragon stack is the second shortest, with only six records, but it’s easy to get to. I take a look.
Red, orange, yellow, green, purple, white. Only missing blue and black. I guess I won’t be getting any fighting tips from these—especially since Dragons don’t even all have the same number of limbs—but I’d like to avoid combat as much as I can anyway. Right now, I’m mostly looking for flight hints and information on any Dragons that might be close by. Although the Mymoir said that century dragons won’t appear near any other Dragons, which is a small comfort.
The records only have a color and a date engraved, so I guess I’ll go from oldest to newest. I pick up the memory cube for the green dragon, recorded in 1977, and slot it into the projector. Most of these are older than I am, but illusion projectors have been around for ages. I push the button to start it and sit on the floor next to the projector.
Thankfully, immunity to most Aspect magic doesn’t mean that I can’t see illusions. They don’t block my heat sense at all, but I can still see and hear the contents of the record played out before me. Memory cubes normally record events rather than images, so the illusion isn’t sitting still, but the initial view shown isn’t a familiar location at all.
The street is built from stones of many shapes and sizes, and the colorful buildings on either side look like what Dad described for East Asian architecture. There are about twenty short and tan people lining the side of the road that’s in focus, before the images moves and the view shifts to the left.
I blink. That’s a lot of dead things. Mostly wolves and gryphons, but there are a few humans and I’m starting to feel sick. Their insides are showing but it doesn’t look like they were torn open. Instead, they almost look like they were burned open. I watch the illusion as little as possible while I wait for the silent image to end. Finally the glow goes away and I change out the memory cube. 1981, yellow dragon.
Most illusions have some depth to them, but this one just shows a flat yellow. Then the recorder backs up. Oh. I was looking at the tail of a skinny yellow dragon. I’d say it looks kind of like myself, but he’s obviously male and his wings are more like the ones on dragonflies. Mine are wide enough that I’m not sure the built-in magic of the dragon form is actually helping me fly at all. The sky behind this Dragon is blue, but that’s not keeping lightning from flashing through the view. Is that Aspect lightning? No: it’s too fast and splintered. Yellow dragons can make lightning the same way nature does. I swear, the Mymoir could double as a science textbook sometimes. Aspect lightning magic is directed by the caster and usually doesn’t split much at all.
There are five—I think—people flying around the Dragon in the sky. It’s hard to keep track of everything because everyone is moving so fast. One feathered monster is trying to land on the Dragon while the humans do… something? The Dragon seems to be having a hard time with flying but other than thunder I don’t see or hear anything really happening. Then the view slides down and I can see that the combatants are flying over what looks like a desert‒ is that a cannon!?
Where’d they even get one?
An upright wolf monster loads a cannonball from a stack just as lightning strikes the cannon! Which doesn’t do any favors for the monster. I hope he wasn’t electrocuted, but the blast threw him back. Then lightning strikes some wooden barrels that explode! I barely remember not to duck when a huge wood fragment flies towards the projector… and then the record ends.
At least I know the person who made the record survived. He must’ve just been knocked out. And while I might be a Dragon, that doesn’t mean that I think the others are any more justified than a playground bully for what they do. They get what’s coming to them. Hopefully the rest of these records will be more helpful. 1987, purple dragon. I think this one was taught in school.
The skyscraper in the middle of the opening scene is painted brightly, with NYDF on the front. It’s night, so there are lamp illusions keeping the front of the building brightly lit. Then I hear a CREAK and a CRASH and I think the whole building is tilting to the right.
And now I know why they didn’t show this record in class: people are screaming and cursing as the building collapses, some flying out of higher floors and a lot rushing out of the bottom. Some of the floors look like they’re falling through each other… oh. Purple dragons have “boundary” magic. No wonder theirs is so hard to guess; Aspect doesn’t have anything like it, I don’t think. They can make objects able to pass through each other, or modify boundaries in any other way for any of the rest of the Star elements. That sounds really hard to use.
Some of the uniformed people that came from the Defense Force building point up and behind the view of the record-maker, and the view turns upwards as several people and projectile spells launch themselves towards the target. All I can see from this angle is a claw peeking over the edge of the roof, but I’m sure the fighters could see a lot more.
The purple Dragon takes flight, hovering over the now-former site of the DF headquarters as more and more people mob it. I can’t really get a good look, but‒ hold on. Yes, this is one that I learned about in class: that Dragon is still alive. I’m sure there’s a mention in the Mymoir. … His name is Sven. And… he has a wife and son? Martha (a red dragon) and Steven (a blue dragon). And from what I’ve picked up from records and newspaper clippings, those three are all in North America. Yay for me.
The record ends with Sven flying away somehow missing a leg—which looks quite painful, but he’s not really letting it show—as the defenders shout in triumph. While I know he hasn’t returned to New York since then, he has a new territory close to the center of the US. And he’s not missing a leg in newer records. I knew that Dragons could heal but that is way better healing than I expected. What’s the Mymoir say? «All wounds are healed upon shifting in either direction.» Come to think of it… I take a closer look at my left arm, which I know scarred from that wolf’s claws earlier this year. Wow. Even the scars are gone, and those were there before I awakened. I guess I don’t have to worry about transformation injuries like Jess does.
When Jess gave me the feather that’s now around my neck, we learned the hard way that you’re not supposed to transform while hurt. Well, first we learned that you’re not supposed to pull feathers out of a bird. We’d heard of plucking chickens, and living where we do, there are feathers on the ground all the time, especially in the spring and fall when a bunch of birds migrate through town. So we thought that feathers just fell out naturally and it’d be easy to get a high-quality feather from Jess. What we learned is that while both of those things are technically true, those statements don’t really apply to pinions (the giant feathers at the end of the wing that enable flight). Those are anchored rather well.
The second thing we learned is that if you transform while hurt, you get hurt worse. Jess’s wing was bleeding a lot, and she was screaming in pain, and then she panicked and transformed back to human. And we were really lucky that pinions aren’t interpreted by her magic to be the same as fingers. Instead, she just was missing about half the skin on the back of her hand. So, um, it healed. Eventually. Her hand is scarred from that event but at least there wasn’t any deeper tissue damage. I don’t think she lost any mobility from that. Although she’s also left-handed now because of how long that took to heal.
Anyway, back to the projector. The record has long-since ended, so I swap it for the next one: 1988, white dragon.
There aren’t any easy references in this scene as to where it took place: it’s just showing five people in strange clothes running across an open field. After showing the people from behind for a bit, it looks up, and‒ that’s a flying white snake. I don’t see any limbs.
That’s Akiko!?
Calm down. This was fourteen years ago; there’s no way she’s still in the area. But why are they chasing her? She’s supposed to be good, right?
Well, it might just be because she’s a Dragon. I don’t think any Dragon would be well received anywhere. That’s why I went flying before sunrise today, after all.
The record ended while I was thinking, so I press the button to run it again. The illusion gives a good view of Akiko before returning to showing the runners from behind. As the group presses on, a shadow falls across the field and trees appear as if from nowhere. Then a whole pack of wolves rush out of the trees, straight at the group which fails to react! What are they doing? The front-most runner is heading straight for a wolf‒ that he passes right through! And through a tree, and‒ and everyone else does so as well, and the wolves aren’t reacting, either. And then they all vanish, the runners continuing to run across the once again open field. White dragons use light, but it’s not like Star and Aspect illusions would work the same way…
And then the frontrunner hits something invisible and falls to the ground. The others stop, and then trees identical to the earlier ones appear between them and Akiko, blotting her out of the record. And then two deer jump out of the forest, and a pack of wolves follow, and the projector shuts off.
What just happened? I browse the Mymoir’s list of spells. «Akiko’s Image Replication.» Oh. She copied the field, at first. And when the runners were in danger, she copied the wolves to warn them. It might not have worked, but she tried. Even though they were chasing her.
Akiko doesn’t seem like a bad role model. I just wish I had an example of a Dragon that got along well with non-Dragons.
1995, orange dragon.
Unlike the other records so far, this one doesn’t seem to be looking at much of anything. Just an empty street with an office building on the opposite side, set back a fair distance by a small field. Without the view moving, an orange dragon flies down and lands directly in front of the record-maker, so close that I’m pretty sure this is a stationary camera that someone set up in advance. Probably a security camera. Those devices aren’t exactly common because Aspect magic isn’t easy to set up for long-term use without an active operator. Maybe it’s a jewelry or wand shop behind the camera.
The Dragon is facing the office building rather than the camera and holding one of his front feet in the air. He moves the foot, one claw pointing at the building, down and to the right before taking off again. And then a few seconds later, part of the building starts to slide, almost as though the whole building was cut along a line traced out by the Dragon’s claw.
The record ends as emergency services pull up. “Atlanta Fire Department” is written on the side of one of the vehicles.
Orange dragons use “mass” magic. I bet this one had a spell that literally removed everything it pointed at. And‒ Atlanta? That’s right near here! I mean, not immediately close. Blacksburg isn’t in that territory. But really, really close. If another Dragon finds out I’m here, I’ll probably have to fight that orange dragon. Good to know, I guess.
Last one: 1998, red dragon.
There’s a town wall with a lot of people standing on top of it. I’ve seen the Blacksburg Defense Force do that when practicing for a major attack, but given the fact that I’m watching a Dragon record I don’t think this is practice. A few upright monsters emerge from the forest opposing the wall and the defenders tense up. And then spells start flying from both sides and I’m pretty sure the monsters aren’t friendly.
But where’s the Dragon?
Despite the efforts of the defenders, the monsters manage to reach the walls. Some are wearing gloves (which are visible because of the different color between fur/scales and fabric) and whatever those ones hit goes flying, and the walls crumble before them. Wh‒ Force magic. Red dragons are force dragons. Just like with heat, you can’t work directly with living things, hence the gloves. And the punching force is then multiplied a lot, and you get these results.
I bet the defenders would do a lot better if they removed their clothes and armor. Which I’ll admit does sound gross and a little dumb, but it’d work because wherever the red dragon is sitting, it’s using the contact between two not-living things to multiply the force. If the fabric hit flesh, the Dragon couldn’t do much. But people probably don’t know that because there are Aspect spells that simply make you stronger, so removing your armor would actually be dumb in that case.
After most of the defenses have collapsed, the red dragon finally flies out of the forest. Many of the still-fighting defenders are lifted into the air before plummeting. The illusion projector cuts off there.
Um. While the Dragon was apparently getting along well with the monsters, that’s not the sort of example I wanted.