(Alex, 16)

"You're worried 'bout him, ain't ya?" Barry's voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and I look over to find my friend giving me a concerned look.

At the moment, we're lying on some rocks out of the city, staring up at the night sky. We decided to rekindle that street romance we had, and so far, it's been nice. We never did anything romantic before, though. It was mostly just getting drunk together and having fun.

Trying for an actual romance is strange. I guess that spark ain't there, but everything's fun, anyway. Tonight's a clear night, and we'd stayed out late hunting flame boars. The stars are pretty enough, and I enjoy watching them, it seems. Something about them relaxes me, makes me forget my worries, my fears, my problems. Just like the street romance with Barry.

"Worried 'bout who?" I ask.

"That prissy noble boy you're always complaining 'bout," he punches me in the arm. "Ya get this look in your eyes when ya get thinking about him. Makes it obvious ya ain't that hateful of 'im."

I sigh, turning my gaze back to the night sky and find the constellation for the dragon. Even though Jason hasn't admitted it, I'm pretty sure that's his insignia, his divine beast. One of the four Elemental Kings, just like me, the dragon can be seen all year 'round.

The other two flame creatures, the phoenix and the fire elemental, are there as well, though in a few weeks, only a couple after the equinox, they'll leave. I can already make out the wind creatures; the thunderbird, it's king, the hippogriff, and the wind elemental.

Of all the divine beasts, the dragon and the leviathan have the closest of relationships. In the night sky, the leviathan circles around the dragon, consuming its own tail and forming an unending circle. The griffin, king of the earth beasts, and the thunderbird, king of the air beasts, are together as well.

If only real-world things were that simple, though. Jason and I could never have such a relationship as our creatures. Fire and water don't mix, ever.

"Ya are, ain't ya?" Barry's voice interrupts my thoughts once more, and I look at him again.

"He's literally going off to talk to dragons," I say. "I'm just thinking about how stupid he'd have to be to do something like that. It ain't right. What if he angers one of the dragons?"

"Ya are worried 'bout him!" He gives me a light shove.

"No, I'm not!" I shove him back. "I's worried 'bout the people! He pisses off a dragon, he ain't gonna be the one dealing with the fallout! He's gonna be dead, and everyone else will suffer! It's stupid!"

"Your voice cracked when you said 'dead'," he gives me a smirk. "Ya are worried 'bout him, Alex, much as ya'd like to deny it!"

"Jason could screw off and do his own thing for all I care," I mumble. "He just needs to think 'bout other people, first."

"By 'other people'," he says. "Ya mean ya, doncha?"

He's right, but I don't want to admit it. I can't push this worry out of my head.

"Well," Barry sits up. "From what I know of him, he ain't the kind who'll go down easy, ya know. He pisses off a dragon, ya can bet that dragon's gonna be hurtin' when it ends, too. Heck, I bet he'd even escape! He's got that fancy gate spell of his, ya know? Just open it up and 'poof'! Gone! Ain't as slow as teleporting, ya've said."

He's right. I've seen Jason teleport, and even if it's only to another part of the university, it still takes several seconds to cast the spell. With his gate, it seems to occur immediately.

"Ya know what else?" Barry says, and I look at him. "I think that your prissy noble is damn hot. Bet if he weren't that prick ya said he is, maybe he'd even give ya a chance, ya know?"

"As if," I push him back down, and he laughs. "Jason obviously has it for Princess Lina, why else'd he be hanging out with her betrothed all the time? I told ya that he even took Prince Niko home, right? Bet he was hoping the Marran'd decide to stay home, and only brought 'im back 'cause of that 'honor' they supposedly tout. He's been weird 'round me since last weekend, too. Bet something happened on that trip, and he decided he ain't gonna put up with me anymore. Barely talks to me now, ya know? Tried starting conversation a few times just to check, and he can't get away fast enough. Tried asking 'bout those pins he started wearing after Prince Jacob had 'iim make that one for his girl while struggling for something to talk 'bout, and he stopped changing 'em every day. Probably wanted to annoy me or something, ya know?"

Yeah, ever since Prince Jacob asked Jason to make the fancy one for his girl, Jason's been wearing a different one every day. Asked on Wednesday while trying to see if he'd do the same thing then with conversation. Wanted to know why he kept wearing them. It was only ever one or two, above his left ear, just as when he showed the prince what they looked like in hair.

The only reason that came to mind was 'cause I realized I hadn't thought of something and my gaze'd settled on them. Sara had mentioned the day before that she suspected he was trying to see if someone would comment on the strange fashion by rotating them every day so that it would be more obvious than if he kept it the same.

Not that he ain't looking good in them or anything. The current 'fashion' is a pair of them, more simple than anything. They're more like wires that were bent into a U, with one leg of each rippled. Made of some sort of dark brown metal, they contrast against his white-blond hair.

I guess they look better than some of the others he'd worn. They weren't the kind he'd pulled out for the gift from the prince, though, those were all feminine. The kind Jason started wearing were all more simple or masculine.

"Well," Barry says. "Ya can stop worrying 'bout him once we've enough money to make sure we can pay for a few months, then we're all getting that place, don't forget. If ya haven't changed your mind by then."

"Doubt I ever will," I tell him. "Jason's just another prissy noble. Bet he'll tell me real soon that I ain't allowed to stay there. Surprised he's put up with a street rat so far, I am."

(Jason, 16)

"Did you know that Alex's birthday is on New Year's?"

Jacob gives me a bewildered look. Okay, I admit that asking that while we're standing on a mountain, waiting for a century-old dragon to come investigate the heavy use of spatial magic, probably wasn't the best idea, but I'm bored and we're not going seeking the dragon. He'll come to us, I'm sure of it. The magic was enough to tell him that there are intruders here, and he'll want to investigate and threaten. So we're waiting for him to come to us, and he'll probably not go into a fit when he sees us.

We're at the mines themselves, or rather, their entrance, and I have three cows and a small chest of enchanted coins that will keep themselves clean, along with a jeweled mithril medallion. The medallion is in my spatial storage, while the actual chest is sitting in front of me. The cows are mollified by some mind magic and surrounded by a makeshift pen that Jacob and I made as soon as we arrived using pre-made segments from our spatial storages.

"No, I didn't," he answers. "Isn't that called the Day of the Leviathan?"

"Yep," I nod. "And his divine beast is the Leviathan. Having a king beast is rare enough, to not only have it, but be born on its sacred day?"

"How did you find this out?" He asks.

"His birthday?" I ask, and Jacob nods. "I saw his ID the other day, he was doing something with it. In the ancient times, it was considered lucky to be born on the sacred day of a king beast, and even more so if they were your divine beast."

Admittedly, that knowledge comes from a memory from when I was High Magus Nolan. Each Magi was born as a different divine beast, and the four who represented the kings were born on the sacred days of their beasts.

"I'm a griffin," Jacob tells me. "And was born on the Day of the Griffin."

The sacred days of the beasts are around a week after the solstices and equinoxes, the start of the seasons they govern.

"I'm a dragon," I tell him. "And was born on the Day of the Dragon, the first of July, marking my birthday exactly six months after Alex's and three after yours."

"Tasha's a hippogriff," he tells me. "And was born on the Day of the Thunderbird. Kind of cool, right? Even if she doesn't have a king beast, my future queen was born on the day of a king beast."

Alex and Jacob are both king beasts and born on the days sacred to them? How interesting. It's almost as if…

I'm not the only Magus to reincarnate, am I? The coincidences there are just too strong. Alex and Jacob… are they Magi, too? If so, they have done a good job at hiding it. Then again, so have I, but none of them have displayed abilities that could even hint at it, and their magics are weak. How many of them lived a second life?

I'd need to see their Crystal Crests to know for sure.

"Can I see your Crystal Crest?" I ask Jacob. "I know it's kept secret since you're a prince and all, but since we're technically cousins… I was just curious. I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

That's a big leap there, especially since things can go wrong if I'm wrong and he isn't a reincarnated Magus.

Jacob looks like he's debating over it, then shakes his head a little.

"It's secret for a reason," he says. "I'd only show it to you because I absolutely trust you, Jason, but you'd have to swear on the gods that you won't tell a single soul what it looks like or anything you discover from it. Swear it?"

He looks serious.

"I swear it," I say, and he holds out his hand, his Crystal Crest manifesting upon his call.

Clear, like all for those alive, with a griffin imprinted onto either side. As with all Crystal Crests, it has his name and his potential destinies on it in the ancient tongue. Written in gold, not the usual silver, just like mine.

It's also familiar, and I don't even need to read the pair of names above the griffin to know who he is. Magus to the left, Hero to the right, and Slayer beneath. He was a Magus from ancient times, the only difference between this Crystal Crest and the one of Magus Ethan, the Magus of Light, being that instead of just the rune for "Ethan" above the griffin, it also has the rune for "Jason".

He is a reincarnated Magus. Does that mean Tasha is? Lina, too? Are all of them reincarnated? Who are all of the Magi that are reincarnated? Why are we being reincarnated around the same time?

Why was I reincarnated a second time between these two incarnations, if Ethan was only reincarnated again as Jacob?

"It's an ancient tongue," he says. "So we don't really know what it means, but… the part where the name is-"

"You know my theory on reincarnation," I look at him, and he nods. "So? Is it true? That's two names there. Does my theory hold true about the soul and the consciousness being separated? That reincarnated souls don't have the knowledge of their past, only the memories, and even then, they aren't complete and have to be recovered and interpreted? Do-"

"Yes," he laughs. "It's true, Jason. Don't ask me about my last life, though. Please? It's pretty personal. Being reincarnated… Papa said I'm the first known case of it in over three thousand years, that it was only a myth. I mean, I've read about it in stories and all, but-"

"I won't ask," I smile at him. "But if you ever want to chat about it, feel free to talk to me."

"Alright," he says. "And Jason, you don't need to show me yours. I was going to reveal mine to you eventually anyway, probably, because of your interest in such things and your theory."

"Are you sure you don't want to see mine?" I ask.

"Yes," he shifts for a few moments, his eyes darting around. "I may be able to interpret some of the runes, and you know how the stories say they reveal our potential destinies? That's probably a personal thing, much more so than you knowing I've reincarnated from another… place."

He almost said 'time', didn't he? He knows the stories say that reincarnates come from other worlds, and knows that he didn't.

"You can read the runes?" I ask. He probably learned the ancient language from his memories as Ethan. "That's impressive, Papa Samuel said that he didn't know of anyone who could."

"There are some texts that reference them," Jacob nods, looking up. "But no one can actually translate them. Most of what I know is guessing, but the fact that the dragon's coming isn't."

I look over and spot the dragon. It's around thirty-seven feet in height, so I'm agreeing that he's probably around a century in age. The dragon reaches us, then gently floats down, the cows becoming a little uneasy, but still under my spell.

"How interesting," the dragon's deep, young voice enters my head directly. "To think that one who has slain a dragon alone walked this world. If I had to guess, I'd say you're reincarnated, since I've not heard of anyone managing such a feat in my lifetime."

I look at Jacob, who is standing nervously.

"He cannot hear my words," the dragon tells me, and I turn my gaze back to him. "I am granting them only to you. What brings you here, Slayer of Dragons?"

"To apologize for the unannounced presence," I gesture to the cows. "We have brought you an offering in the hopes of peace, and possible talks."

"They look healthy," he says, and Jason jumps. I guess he can hear the dragon, now. "And smell delicious. Offering accepted. Are those coins I am sensing in the chest?"

"They are," I kneel and open the chest sitting in front of me, allowing him to see the coins sparkling in the summer sun. They're silver, polished to a fine shine, but still beautiful enough to a dragon. "We have brought you an offering in the hopes of negotiating access to these mines behind us. When you moved here, the miners who worked them for their adamant left out of fear."

"That is an interesting enchantment," the dragon walks forward, the ground shaking with every step, and he leans forward, turning his head so that his left eye can inspect the coins from only a few inches away. "The finesse with which these coins were made, the skill with which the enchantments were placed. I recognize the magical signature as yours, Slayer of Dragons."

Jason gives me a startled look. I suppose the dragon only wanted to hide that I was reincarnated, not that I have slain a dragon before. He must not have heard the conversation between my cousin and me.

"I performed the enchantment," I admit. "My Papa Samuel and Papa Jared taught me how. There are dragons not far from where we live, and they prefer offerings that clean themselves over ones that need regular polishing. These coins may be silver, but they will not turn black, as most do when not cared for properly and regularly."

"I can see that enchantment," the dragon pulls his head back, looking at Jacob and me. "Adamant is unshiny, and I have no need of it."

He tilts his head a little.

"To be honest, I was not aware these mines even existed," he admits. "Though I did plan on one day investigating the old trail. Even if nature has reclaimed it, I can still sense it. Your offering has been accepted, Slayer of Dragons, Prince of Varil."

He turns his gaze to the pen, contemplating something for a few minutes before returning his gaze to us.

"The mines may be used your by your people," he tells us. "Under the condition that they bring either one cow or two pigs on the first of each month. I will allow them to continue to mine for the following four weeks so long as the meal is appetizing enough. In addition to that, they are to put on the offering ten thousand Varilan varru's worth of jewels in the form of jewelry of gold or mithril and jewels.

"Finally," he carefully closes the chest with the tip of his tail, a movement that startles Jacob, causing him to jump back. "One chest of these enchanted silver coins must be brought to me on the Day of the Dragon every year the mine is in use. Should even one of these conditions not be met, use of the mines will cease. Do we have an agreement?"

"We do," I answer.

"Then the deal is struck," he tells us. "Thank you for the offering, Slayer of Dragons, Prince of Varil. Please ensure that they know that when I collect my offerings, I will not tolerate any attempts at killing me, be it by blade, magic, poison, trickery, or any other means."

"We will ensure they know," Jacob finally speaks. "Thank you for your generosity, great dragon."

"Adamant has no use for me," the dragon repeats its previous comment. "It is unshiny and hideous. Were this a mine of jewels and beautiful metals, I would demand half of all they mined in payment. Should they ever find any such beauty, please ensure they know to leave them with their offerings."

"We will," I dip my head. "Before you go, I have three things, two of which are questions. We understand if a being as great and powerful as you does not answer them."

"You may ask, Slayer of Dragons," he responds.

"The first is regarding that," I say. "How did you know I have killed a dragon?"

"Anyone," he answers. "Who has killed a dragon unaided is marked upon their soul, a mark to remind all dragons that though we may be a force of nature, it is not just a dragon which can slay our kind."

And since the soul is involved in reincarnation, that mark must have carried through to now, despite the kill being when I was Nolan, three thousand years ago.

"For the second question," I say. "Would you be kind enough to give us your name?"

"Aizaral," the dragon answers. "It is rare that a human would bother to learn it. Tell me, why do you care?"

"It would be rude," I say. "To not perform proper introductions when performing any form of negotiations, Great Aizaral. I am Jason Jeshema, and as you're aware, this is Jacob Varil. It was a pleasure to meet you, Great Aizaral, and we thank you for your generosity to lowly creatures like us humans."

"As long as the offerings are met," Aizaral says. "I will allow you creatures to use these mines and harvest that ugly metal."

"And we thank you for that," I give him a bow, then pull the talisman out of my spatial storage. "As a parting gift for you, Great Aizaral, I forged this talisman. I worked off my memory of the flames of another dragon, and hope this appeals to you."

When I imbue it with my magic, the jewels set into the mithril talisman fragment the sun's light, casting a flame-like pattern around. Even the slightest shift causes it to alter the appearance of the 'dragon's flames'.

"That is a curious trinket," he says, obvious pleasure in his voice. "All it needs is magic imbued, and it refracts light in such a way? Sometimes, you humans invent the most interesting things."

"I designed it for you," I tell him as I release my magic, the fragmenting of the light ending. "It still fragments the light a little, as you can see, but the only way to get it to work fully without magic was to use crystals, which could never hope to please a being as great as a dragon, Great Aizaral. The magic enchanted into the talisman increases the refraction of light, allowing it to project out as if they were mere glass."

"Your offering is accepted," he says, and I place it into the chest with the silver coins. "Thank you, humans. You may leave, now."

I give him a small bow, then open a gate to the area outside of his territory where we left the guards and the other offering. Jacob and I exit through it as the dragon gives it a curious look, and we both drop to the ground in relief as I close the gate.

There aren't any guards too close to us, and I can tell Jacob has something on his mind, probably what the dragon called me, so I erect a privacy shield using air magic.

"What, Jacob?"

"When did you kill a dragon?" He asks.

"It was young and dying," I lie. "I guess tricking it into death was enough to get the marker? Unfortunately, its hide and scales were too rotted to use. It had some sort of disease that was eating away at it. I don't have anywhere near enough magical power to even faze a dragon, so I got lucky. Personally, I think the dragon actually let me kill it, with how easy it was."

That seems to satisfy Jacob, and once we recover enough, I use water and air magic to clean us of the smell of the other dragon and his territory, then I study the map we have of the area. Once I'm confident in my targeting, I teleport Jacob and me to a spot on the mountains that is a lot closer to where the professor lives than I had expected. I don't sense anyone inside the stone house I can see at the bottom of the cliff, and there's a good chance they haven't been around in awhile. We're at the top of the cliff, but I doubt that even if we'd ended up by the house, we'd find out where she went or is.

We quickly construct a pen, lashing together the pre-made sections with rope. Just as I open the gate so that the guards can push the cows through, we spot the dragon coming. Red dragons aren't as lazy, so I'm not surprised it came to investigate quicker than Aizaral did.

The forty-foot-tall dragon lands, startling the cow that had begun to pass through the gate, and it glares at us.

"If you give us just a minute," I look at the dragon. "We can finish getting our offering to you out here."

"How dare you trespass in my land!" Its voice enters our heads. I could tell it's definitely a female, even before hearing the voice. Why did people think she was a male? "Wait, offerings? What offerings?"

"The cows that we're trying to get to move through the gate?" I place a hand on the cow and use mind magic to convince it to come out. "We've got five of them and three pigs for you. We knew you would sense us arriving, and brought offerings as an apology for the intrusion, and possibly for information."

The dragon watches as we finally get the eight animals through the gate, then I quickly close it. Having a dragon here caused more work for us, since I had to use mind magic on all of them and spell them once they were through to calm them down and keep them from trying to flee.

"Here we are," I give her a slight bow. "You are quite the beautiful dragon, not at all the ugly brute that stories say red dragons are. Are your scales naturally that shiny?"

"They are!" She boasts. "As long as we clean ourselves, our scales' natural shine shows! Unlike you humans and your ugly, dull skin. I thank you for your offering, little one. Why are you here?"

"We meant to teleport to the hut down below," I answer. "It has been a few weeks since the term began, and Professor Savannah Jaelva never came to the university where she teaches. We were wanting to see if she was there, and if not, if your Greatness would be kind enough to grant us any knowledge you had of where she might be."

"Savannah was an interesting one," she peered over the cliff and looked at the house. "I let her stay because her antics amused me. She made plenty of offerings, too. Every summer, she would come home to do her research, and every week, at minimum, she gave me an offering. Unlike most of you pathetic humans, who only give offerings when demanded of it. Your kind need to learn from her and worship us properly. Sometimes, I consider burning some crops to prove a point. I am superior, and the minimum isn't always enough. It shows complacency, not admiration."

"We apologize for that," I tell her. She's definitely the kind of red dragon who prefers to be worshiped and is vain.

That's good, because I took a gamble and hoped the red dragon would be. It can go either way with them. Preparing for the other scenario would have been exhausting and far more time-consuming, and Jacob seemed pretty concerned about finding out about the professor's situation, so I didn't want to wait a few more weeks.

"We'll make sure they know," I tell the dragon. "To give you more than you ask for, with special treats from to time time. You are right, in that dragons should be admired in addition to feared.

"My name is Jason Jeshema," I introduce myself. "And this is Jacob Varil. As concerned students, we ask of you, do you know what happened to her?"

"No," she answers. "She left as she usually did before beginning university. She mentioned something about investigating wyverns. Why she would want to look at those ugly, pathetic wannabes, I've no clue. Now. You have your answers, it is time to eat you."

"If you let us go instead of eating us," I say. "Then you wouldn't receive a chest of shiny coins as a thanks for being so kind as to inform us of what happened to our professor. It would only be right for lesser creatures such as we to pay you in kind."

"Very well, then," she says. "Humans give me indigestion, anyway. You're filthy and stinky."

She sniffs the air.

"Actually, you two smell nice. Maybe I'll let you live after you give me the offering just for not fouling up my nose."

"We thank you for that, Great Dragon," I pull the chest out of my spatial storage. It's a little bit bigger than the one I gave Aizaral. I open it up after setting it down. "I know it's no gold or mithril, but the flamebronze is beautiful in its own way. They're enchanted to clean themselves, so that like your scales, which they so try to mimic, they will always remain polished and shiny."

The dragon inspects the flamebronze, an alloy made of copper and fire tin, both of which were mined from a volcanic area, imbued with a natural enchantment of fire magics. The reddish bronze coins are not as red as the dragon's scales, nor as metallic, but if my prediction works, that will only increase the appeal of the offering.

She'll want to keep them around as a way of reminding herself that she is more beautiful than they, rather than for the beauty of them.

"Yes," she pulls her head back. "They do try to imitate my scales, but I am far more beautiful than these coins of yours. I accept your offering, for they are beautiful in their own way."

Yep, she's keeping them for the reason I suspected. Dragons are vain, regardless of sex or type, and anything that reminds them of how much more superior they are to other things is often a good offering. The extra-vain red dragons, that's doubly true.

"We are glad to hear that you appreciate them," I give her a small bow.

"You may leave, humans."

"Before we do," I say, and she glares at me. "I was wondering if we could learn the name of the dragon who so graciously allowed us to leave her territory?"

"This dragon who has so generously allowed you humans to live after intruding upon her land is Mairala! Remember this name for all your lives, little humans, for it is unlikely you will ever meet another dragon so kind!"

"We will," I bow, then open a gate out, Jacob and I exiting through it.

"That," Jacob says as I close the gate. "Was not what I was expecting. Her anger flared a couple of times, but she quickly calmed down. I was under the impression that red dragons were always violent, demanding."

"I appealed to her vanity and greed," I say. "And gave her plenty of offerings while complimenting her. That's how you treat a dragon if you want a higher chance of success. Thankfully, she was the kind of red dragon where vanity was more important than rage and her stomach. At least we know she didn't eat the professor."

"No," he frowns. "I've met Professor Jaelva a few times. She came from a noble family – her papa was a Duke, actually. Her niece is Duchess Jaelva. She'd mentioned a few times when I was younger that she always wanted to study wyverns. There's a good chance she went somewhere with some and then forgot to keep track of time as she started studying. She's either upper blue or lower indigo, so she can handle a nest of them on her own."

"How long do you think it would be before she returned from that?" I ask.

"Papa told me a few years ago," he responds. "That she once went and studied griffins… for two years. She told the university she wanted to take a break of a term to study a nest of them, and didn't return for two years. At least then, we knew where she was, and even managed to get messages to her. There are plenty of places she could be, and if she's studying wyverns and lost herself into them, it could be a couple of years before she shows back up. I'll let Papa and the headmaster know that she's gotten herself lost in research again."

"Alright," I say. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll open a gate back to Varil City."

"Just open it straight to the palace," he tells me. "I want to tell Papa this, then freak out in private over being up-close and personal with some dragons, one of whom looked like she was going to kill me."