(Alex, 16)

Miralandis opens up a gate, and my training group and the one we're pairing up with for this session passes through it. We find ourselves outside, in front of what is obviously meant for our training session today. It's a pit which spans a couple hundred feet on each side, with a series of posts rising up from the pit, each one at varying heights, though it looks like they're in a three-foot range for their peaks. There are two goals, each just a pair of wooden posts sticking out of the ground outside the pit. Each corner also has a post rising up from it.

All of the external posts have a glow at the top. The corner posts' glow is red, while the glow on one pair of goalposts is green, the other blue.

Jason is here, sitting on the air, with a crate on either side of him, a ball floating beside him. It reminds me of a soccer ball in size from when I was Kyle, though it's exterior is black leather with no seam, probably magically-fused together. A slim metal whistle hangs around his neck, a thin, short tube with two holes.

I can already figure out what he wants us to do, and it does not sound fun. Especially since that's very clearly water in the pit, with only around three feet of space between its surface and the shortest posts. It isn't frozen, which means it's either magically heated or magically kept liquid in this freezing weather.

Either way, we'd be freezing the moment we left the water.

"Before we begin with today's session," Jason says once we are all here and Miralandis has closed the gate. "I would like to mention that you'll notice a glow at the tops of the four corner posts. That red glow signifies the warmth barrier is active. Within the playing field, there's a heat enchantment that keeps it from being freezing. That doesn't mean it's warm, just that you won't get frostbite or freeze to death. Falling in the water will still be unpleasant, especially upon exit.

"On to today's training," he says. "For the next two hours, the sixteen of you will be playing a game. Each team will be wearing a team shirt, which can be found in the crates beside me.

"Here are the rules," he says. "First, flight is not allowed. The enchantments in the playing field will prevent it, in addition to gravity and any air-based flight attempts. Lethal attacks are not permitted, and nor are serious injuries. Accidents can happen, and we will be watching to make sure they are accidents, should they happen. In case of an accident, Fael Mira and Jarenidis will be on standby for healing.

"You can use magic," he continues. "And martial arts. Weapons are not permitted. You are more than welcome to attack each other, but keep in mind that there is a dispelling enchantment that will disable any large-scale spells. Magi, this includes your combat constructs. Alex, this includes all variations of your leviathan spell, and Elise, same for your kraken spell.

"The goal," Jason indicates the ball. "Is to get this ball through the goal post of your team's color."

The ball shoots off into the playing field, hovering over its center, continuing to spin. Does it have its own enchantments for that, or is Jason doing that still?

"Do not worry about damaging it with your spells," Jason tells us. "The ball's leather is made of leather made from a black dragon's hide. It will resist anything you hit it with. You are free to hit others, too. You will each start on the opposite side from your team's, and when I blow my whistle, you'll begin playing. Once the game starts, the ball will no longer float, and you'll need to carry, throw, toss, pass, and so on yourselves. Any injuries that are not serious will be treated after the game ends.

"Getting the ball through the goal," Jason says. "Begins a new round and earns your team a point. We will play until the end of this session. Elise's team will move on to the next lesson, while Alex, your team will stay here for the following. Every team will play for two sessions, so Elise's group you'll be here again in the fifth session for your second round.

"Fael Mira, Jarenidis, and I," Jason tells us. "Will be keeping track of how many points each team has earned in both sessions they play. The team with the most points combined at the end of the day will receive a special reward. The four players with the most points they themselves scored will also receive a special reward. The team with the lowest cumulative points will have extra duties tonight."

That sounds both fun and terrifying.

"Alex, your team is blue, Elise, your team is green," Jason indicates the crates to his right and left as he speaks. "Grab your team colors, then get into position on the posts. Part of this training is meant for helping you dodge and strike moving targets in uneven and difficult terrains. Good luck!"

We move to the crates and pull out the shirts inside, pulling them on. My team has the far side, so we walk around the pit, then do our best to move across the posts. The other team seems to struggle just as much as we do.

Moving around on the posts is far from easy, even if we can sort-of stand on them. This is not going to be fun.

Jason blows the whistle, and we start moving, doing our best to go as quickly as we can without falling into the water. I manage to reach the ball first, but a shot of ice knocks it out of my reach. At the same time, another hits me in the right leg. With my unsteady balance and uncertain footing, that's enough to send me tumbling.

Crap.

(Jason, 16)

Four people fell within one minute of me blowing the whistle. This is actually pretty fun. And there goes Alex! Five people. Alex tries to catch himself, but his fingers slip off the post, sending him tumbling down into the water.

"Where did you come up with this idea?" Fael Mira asks as we watch the attempt at playing the game.

"A show I saw in my last life, back on Earth," I answer. "The main character of it was going through a training arc, and one of the things he did was cross a room across posts, then moved on to carrying buckets of water, then sparring on it."

"You're going straight to the sparring," Jarenidis says.

"Yeah," I say. "But at least there's water. In the show, it was just an emptiness, a deep fall. The posts are spaced close enough here that even Jeddy wouldn't have to stretch his legs that far to move around. Niko's group is going to be fun."

"Why do you say that?" Fael Mira asks.

"Because Niko helped me set this up," I answer. "And he helped me test to make sure we could move on each of the posts. We didn't have any water in the pit, so a fall would have meant a serious injury."

"So he has balance on them?" Jarenidis asks.

"Yeah," I nod, then snort. They're struggling to move around enough this is beyond funny. Everyone's fallen in now, and is either getting out or has managed to return to atop the posts. "Well, moderate. He fell several times, but I'd already taught him the flight spell, and Mama Alyssa hadn't done the enchantments yet."

"It was Alyssa who enchanted this?" Jarenidis asks. "Not you?"

"Not me," I confirm. "I can't do a large-scale enchantment the way she does, and it would have taken up too much of my time to do this one right. Several days of work, while she managed it in a day."

I'm much, much better at enchantments on smaller things, even if those enchantments are much more powerful than what Mama Alyssa can do. Seven hundred years of practice, and I just never managed to acquire the skill for quickly creating potent enchantments over a large space.

Stuff like the wards and protections on walls and buildings are different, those are placed into each brick, each log, into the mortar, and all of that stuff. In each individual piece. With the pit, it's one massive, blanket enchantment.

Really, the only large-area enchantment I can do is a barrier. At least, with any real proficiency. I've sort-of forgotten why I focused on learning that, though. Or is that I've not yet remembered? I'm both Nolan and Jason, so I suppose it's both.

With my advancement to grey, and from lower grey to middle grey, my lives as Nolan and Lucas are simply a part of me. Actual experience I went through, even if it's only for those memories I hold. Knowledge and skills from those lives are a part of me, not just memories I hold.

One day, I'll be able to recover even more of my forgotten memories, but for now, I'm taking things one day at a time. I have to, especially with my current state of health.

Patience isn't exactly my strong suit, either. I'm heavily tempted to open up my spatial storage, even with the risks to my health that poses, and pull out the keys to the tomb. The desire to know what's within them is strong.

My attention returns to the playing field. Alex has managed to get the ball, and it seems everyone has realized that it's enchanted to hover over the water. Elise is underwater right now, swimming between the posts. She's probably going to torpedo herself up out of the water in an attempt at claiming the ball from Alex, now that he's managed to actually grab it and start moving across the posts.

Torpedoing, a phrase from my life as Lucas. Not something from this life, yet still used as naturally as I would use a phrase from now.

As I watch the two teams war with each other, a memory surfaces, completely unrelated to what is going on right now. The memory of why I spared a gold dragon's egg.

It wasn't just one egg I spared. There were dozens of eggs, gold and silver alike. They were stored in a chamber somewhere, enchantments placed over the place to ensure none of the eggs would hatch. The chamber's enchantments are powered by dragon's veins, ensuring they won't fade.

Much like the tombs.

The reason I preserved eggs in secret after destroying so many of them and killing the silver and gold dragons was for now. This lifetime. The idea was to see how the one gold dragon I gave to the clans was doing. If it had gone the path of the previous generations, then I would destroy it and the rest. Otherwise, I would grant him the rest of the eggs, and he could raise the young up into adulthood, guiding them in a more pleasant ruling of the clans.

He passes.

There's just one problem: I can't remember where I hid the eggs. They were placed in a chamber somewhere. I do know that. And that it's on Midlaris. But the memory and knowledge of the whereabouts of the chamber elude me.

Well, I'll eventually remember where I stuck that. Even if I'm grey, that doesn't mean I can instantly recall everything. Heck, I remember forgetting stuff all the time as Nolan. I was over seven hundred years old by the time the Gathering happened and I wasn't in my true form.

Heck, I forgot stuff plenty of times in my true form. I could always recall it eventually, though, as it's impossible for us to truly forget something, to never be able to recover that knowledge or memory or whatever.

Returning my attention back to the game, I chuckle as I watch half of both teams fall into the water. They're moving around better, but they're still inexperienced on the posts. Before the battle in Kelmar, I trained on them at least once a week, and can move pretty decently across them.

Right now, however, such actions are not a good idea. Why? Because, well, I'm healing. And missing a leg and arm. The ones made up of magic work well enough for what I need, but there are some flaws to them, much like with Niko's gargoyle leg.

They're actually worse than his leg, because I have to move them with my magic. Due to my constant state of healing, I can't simply grow gargoyle parts like he did. My fingers on my magical hand aren't as dexterous as they should be, either, which is why I've been doing basic training exercises – that's helping me with controlling them better.

"Jason," Fael Mira says as we continue to watch the game. "I know you become crippled during the solstices and equinoxes due to your sensitivity to the natural state of magics. Does the alignment which occurs at the end and start of every new year do the same thing?"

A four-hour period occurs every year, for the first and last two hours of it, where there's a perfect alignment of natural magics. It has nothing on the Gathering, but there's still a noticeable effect. Because this body is mortal, and it is this body which is sensing things, a perfect alignment is disturbing to feel.

"No," I answer. "It's a different feeling for sure, but it's never crippling, and it doesn't make me sick. I can usually handle the feeling without too much of an issue."

I can already start to feel the effect, actually, as the alignment begins much earlier than that. That four-hour period, however, is when the actual alignment occurs.

"That said," I say. "There are some meteors or meteorites that will be passing overhead tonight, and those will cause concern."

"Your father could always sense those coming, too," my grandmama nods. "You inherited your sense for natural magics from him."

"Could you ever sense them?" Jarenidis asks her. "You've never mentioned before being able to."

"I know the signs to look for," she answers. "But I do not possess the sense for it, it is something which passes only through the male side of families."

"It does?" Jarenidis asks. "Why?"

"It comes from dragons," I explain. "The Delvarkari were originally copper dragons which became sick. Then I, in my infinite mischief, turned them into humans to deal with the illness. Well, human-like forms. Among dragons, it is the males which protect the clans and the young, and the magics of dragons are affected by the changes to natural magics. Because of that, the males needed to know when to change what they were doing in order to best protect. They developed a sense for natural magics in order to know in advance. Unfortunately, humans – or rather, this type of lesser body – is not meant to detect such potent forces. It ended up being bred out over time, though a few lineages still have it, including ours."

"However," my grandmama adds. "Not everyone is born with the sense. Your second-eldest brother was, and Jason was, but that is two out of seven. Your father was the only of my children to possess this sense, one out of seven."

Jarenidis nods, then thinks over something as we continue to watch the game.

"What did female dragons do?" He asks. "From the stories I hear, it's almost always the males which did stuff, and in the days of today, dragons seem to be solitary creatures."

"Our clans," I say. "Were really the only places where dragons lived together for their lives. Most dragons leave as soon as they're big enough to live on their own. Female dragons would mate with the males, leave the eggs behind, then return to their den. It's not much different from how it's done today. Only in the rare cases where dragons live in clans do females take on a bigger role than that, though there's usually one female that's placed higher than the rest."

"I see," he says. "On the topic of your sense, will the meteor shower interfere with your ability to participate in the activities tonight?"

"Probably," I answer. "As we draw closer to when it strikes, I'll become a bit ill. There's definitely star iron in some of the meteors."

I don't want to miss the festivities, but everyone is already worried about my health. If they see how I'll be tonight, things will probably be a bit uncomfortable for me in more than one way. Dealing with the feeling of the alignment, the meteors, the star iron – and then dealing with everyone's concern for me.

"Your papa," Fael Mira says. "Found a cave outside of our territory where he could escape the feelings. While there, it would lighten greatly. He said it had to do with the way the natural magics flowed there."

"Yeah," I nod. "There's a lake I found years ago that has a similar effect. There are different types of alignment for natural magics, and at the lake, they're always aligned one way, never affected by such effects. Its natural state and alignment is easy on me, making it a place I can go safely. That's where I was on the solstice, actually."

"At a lake?" She asks. "The surrounding area has the effect as well, not just the lake?"

"Sort of," I shake my head. "It's a lot weaker than if I'm in the lake itself. It was frozen over, sadly, so I just hung out by the lake."

Alone, uncomfortably. Papa Jared had meant to join me, but became busy with something, and my other mamas and papas were all busy, too. As Alex and I are now officially courting, he can't be alone with me, especially not for that long. I would have asked Niko, Jacob, or Eden, except the former two had a dance to attend at the royal palace and I know Eden was busy with stuff as well.

I probably could have asked some of the other Magi, except most of them had plans or were female. As for members of my training group, we simply don't have that kind of relationship. Which left me alone, suffering in misery at the lake without anyone to accompany me.

"Will you be going?" Jarenidis asks.

"No," I answer. "It's my first time doing a New Year's celebration with people other than my mamas and papas, I want to enjoy it. And experience such a thing sooner rather than later. After all, if I miss this one, I'd have to wait until next year, and we never know if my sense will be even more sensitive next year, making it even more difficult to deal with."

"If there's not a meteor shower next year," he begins.

"There usually isn't," I say. "But we can't always rely on maybes. Plus, I don't want to set a precedence for missing it the very first time. I don't care about next year, I want to experience it now. It's the first chance I'm getting for it."

"Oh," he says as a thought comes to me.

"What do the Delvarkari do for the New Year celebrations?" I ask. "I know what we did three thousand years ago, back when I was little. Erm. Back when I was Alorovos."

Fael Mira chuckles.

"My papa told me about the Festival of Flames," she tells me. "Especially about what you, as Alorovos, would do during it."

I grin at her. Mischief in all lives is my way. The other Divine Beasts were quite upset when they discovered I introduced humanity and like species into their universes. Most of them didn't even have settings suitable for life until then, but I had a hard time resisting the urge.

And there I go again, thinking of myself as the Divine Dragon. I didn't even remember doing that until I was thinking that.

"We no longer perform the Festival of Flames," Fael Mira tells me. "But we do have celebrations still. Jarenidis and I will be returning to the clan's lands after the training finishes for today to participate in them. As you wish to celebrate your first New Year's with more than just your papas and mamas with your friends, I will invite you to come with us next year instead."

"I will consider that," I smile. "Thank you."

I put my whistle to my lips and blow it.

"Alex! Elise!" I call out. "Stop trying to throttle each other and just play the game! If you want a rematch, you can do it on your own time!"

The pair of Magi give me a sheepish look, then stop attacking each other to go after the ball, which is currently soaring across the field, having been struck by six different spells at once.

(Niko, 16)

"You frightened me, Niko!" Lina exclaims, after having gasped, jumped, and clutched her chest.

"My apologies," I say. "It was not my intention to startle you. How did your second match go?"

"We lost," she answers. "Just as we did against your unit. Do you know who won?"

"My team earned the most points," I say. "Though Jeddy was the individual who scored the most, at six points."

I scored five points during Jason's game, so I managed to make it into the four top players. It was a fun change of pace, though I believe we maybe should have had training on the posts before playing a game on them.

It seems everyone received more than a few bruises, and all of us used holy magic or had it used on us to mend those wounds.

"Jason is strange," Lina says, and I take her hand into mine, then start walking towards the dining hall. "I would never have thought up such a training method as the posts idea, and nor would I have thought up doing a game on them."

"He told me the idea came from something he saw when he was Lucas," I tell her. "When we were setting them up."

"You helped him set that up?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "Though I believe Sage Alyssa might have been the one who set down the enchantments, and I only assisted with a few of the posts. Most of those were Jason and Sage Alyssa as well, I believe. I helped him clear the pit, which we made several of."

"There are several of those pits?" She asks.

"Not all are posts," I tell her. "I am not certain what he has planned for all of them, but I did assist him with setting up many of the locations we will be using for training, some of which are unlikely to see use until the weather is nicer."

We enter the dining hall and make our way to the line to pick out our dinners.

"Jacob's team earned the fewest points," I tell Lina. "They only managed to score one between both sessions they played. As a result, they are on dishes duty tonight, among other things."

"Speaking of the kitchen stuff," Lina says. "I have not seen Jason's new siblings today or yesterday. Do you know what they are doing?"

"Hiding, for the most part," I nod. "I asked Sage Elena about them during breakfast, though she said that Jason is plotting something with them, but the trio of children will not tell her what it is. He seems to have bribed them more than she can."

Lina laughs in response to that, and we select our food, then find a table to sit at.

"I did confirm," I tell her. "That the dream stone was one of the ones we used as Magi."

"You did?" She looks around, then back to me. "What did you do with it?"

"I gave it to Jason," I answer. "The information contained within it could be devastating if anyone found it. While I trust myself to not lose it, especially if I store it within my spatial storage, there is always the risk that it is stolen the first time I take it back out."

"Jason cannot use his spatial storage," she tells me. "How could he protect it?"

"He is deciding on if he should destroy it or not," I tell her, and her eyes widen.

It seems she remembers what happens when a dream stone is destroyed. We destroyed one only once, shortly after the war. The twelve of us joined our magics together to do so, as dreams stones are not so easily broken. The more dreams put into them, the more powerful they become. At the same time, that only gives it more power to unleash when destroyed, resulting in some nasty effects.

That one contained knowledge of a spell placed into it by a god, and the twelve of us agreed it was best to simply erase it from existence rather than risk any mortals finding it. So we joined our powers together and destroyed the stone.

The destruction of that dream stone caused ogre lords. That was what Jason meant by we Magi were the reason behind the rise of ogres and ogre lords. We could have dealt with the situation immediately, except it was subtle, it occurred over time. By the time we would have noticed it, the Gathering had already occurred, the twelve of us ascended out of our mortal forms.

"Jason told me," I say. "That he has a safer place where we can destroy it. A place where the effect would not be as destructive to society in general."

More specifically, the ocean. A great, vast expanse of nothing but water and some sea life. He said that if he destroys it, he will make sure to prevent another ogre and ogre lord situation as well.

"Would he even manage to destroy it alone?" Lina asks. "The rest of us are nowhere near powerful enough to help him, and he is nowhere near as powerful as he was when we destroyed the first."

"He claims to have a method," I answer as Jacob sits beside me.

"Talking about something big being destroyed?" He asks.

"A dream stone," I answer, and he frowns. "The gift Lina gave me on the Honor of the Phoenix."

"I assumed as much," he says. "I can see why we should destroy it, but I second Lina's question. Did Jason actually say what the method was?"

"No," I answer. "But unlike the rest of us, he is both Jason and Nolan, just not someone who used to be Nolan. There is an excellent chance he has devised a method that does not require twelve grey-level mages joining their powers in order to destroy a dream stone."

"I do not want to even ask what that is," Sage Elena says, and we look to find her behind us, likely passing by and hearing the conversation. "Or why destroying it is an issue."

"Probably for the best," Jacob smiles at her. "Do you know where Jason is? I had a question for him, as I know he has been in contact with Papa while we are here."

"Napping at the moment," she answers. "Were you wanting to speak with your papa?"

"No," Jacob answers. "The question can wait, it was simply curiosity on my part."

"He should be awake in an hour," she tells me. "In time for the end of dinner, at least."

Jason needs the rest, with how much magical power he is exerting at all times. I know he wishes to be awake for the celebrations tonight, though, and he does need to eat. I am impressed by his willingness to push himself in order to help the rest of us, but fearful that it might have consequences we cannot foresee.

"You all eat up," Sage Elena tells us. "We have plenty to feast on."

"We will," we tell her in unison.