The Dragel's Song

  ~*~*~*~*~*~

  “So this is what a dragel looks like,” Neil said aloud, standing in front of the bathroom mirror. It had taken a lot of patience, warm water and very, very gentle handling to separate the sheet from his hyper-sensitive wings and then to adjust to the fact that he had actual wings growing out of his skinny back and that his hands weren’t quite hands yet.

  His ears had taken on an almost elfin shape with their high pointed caps. Now that he could look in the mirror, there were other more subtle differences that made him worry and wonder. His eyes were now composed of slit-eyed pupils, like a cat and things were much clearer, no longer blurry as his vision sometimes was.

  It explained the headache, if this was what his body had been working up to.

  He’d never had the appropriate number of medical credits to request a custom fitted and measured pair of corrective lenses, much less the excess currency to afford the surgery that would fix it, so he’d skated by on generic prescriptions, making do with Elyenka’s kindness when she offered him notes on the Gen-Ed classes that she’d already taken—so he wouldn’t have to read the display board.

  Now, he wondered how he’d ever managed. Everything was so clear and bright! While he could hear almost everything, his enhanced hearing was the only thing that wasn’t painful and that was startling enough for him to notice it.

  As he studied his reflection, it dawned on him that nearly every single scar had vanished. There wasn’t a single mark or blemish upon his body, except for the odd, x-shaped mark on his left thigh, but Neil had always considered that to be a birthmark of some sort and so he’d never really paid much attention to it.

  To see himself in his naked glory, completely unscarred, was a shock he hadn’t expected. He’d never remembered seeing himself this way. The next shock—because Fate wasn’t quite done yet—were the scales and tattoos made their appearance. At first, he thought he was imagining them, but then the more he squinted the more they came into focus.

  A fine smattering of peach and silver colored scales sprouted along his neck and jawline, a sprinkling over his forehead, down the back of his arms, his sides and over his bared torso. The scales, he discovered, were warm to the touch and significantly stronger than his human skin. His hands began to shift at that point, to his surprise, they stretched and lengthened out until they were more human than claw and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  Twisting and turning around, he found that the tattoos on his body were alive, in the way that they shifted and rippled over his skin, as if they had a mind of their own. Before his very eyes, they vanished, taking the scales with them, until nothing but unmarked skin remained.

  Before he could wonder even more about that, there was a sharp twinge and then an odd, uncomfortable, squeezing feeling before his wings literally folded into him, vanishing from view. Neil bit back a gasped and stared. There wasn’t a single visible hint anywhere that he’d had wings hanging out of his back for the past few hours.

  He stared until his stomach rumbled and then he realized that food was now a priority, considering that he’d managed to make it through half of the day and no one had come to see him yet. He hoped that the Healers wouldn’t mind and wondered if he could get something to eat without being noticed.

  His gaze fell on Benjamin’s gifted fruit cup as he stepped out from the bedroom and spotted it on the battered nightstand. Crossing the room quickly, he grimaced at the mess he’d made, the torn up bed and sheets, the bloody mess, but his stomach took precedence as he snatched up the fruit cup. Tearing off the disposable lid, he didn’t bother looking for the spoon, but simply shook several pieces into his open mouth as he’d done before.

  Bliss coursed through his weary form as he chewed enthusiastically and practically inhaled the remaining bites. A happy, content feeling stole over him and Neil found renewed strength coursing through him from the tiny snack.

  He took advantage of the change to haphazardly clean the room, enough so that no one would notice anything out of place, should they venture in, then he hurriedly disposed of the bloodied sheets and any traces of the past night.

  By the time he’d finished, his hyper-sensitive skin had calmed enough for him to wear a shirt and overtunic, with his loosest pair of trousers and his comfiest, most well-worn pair of combat boots. He gathered up his homework and his bookbag, intending to at least look the part of a busy student, even if he didn’t intend to do any studying at all.

  Stepping out into the hallway, he checked to make sure there was no one around and then cautiously made his way down the hallway and out into the open areas. He was relieved to see that there was no one there and slipped out from the dorm hallways.

  Neil found himself in the school library and wondering how he could go about finding more information on dragels without giving himself away. He was convinced that dragels could not be extinct—not if he’d apparently just turned into one, considering that his entire form had been exactly like the tube test had predicted and he had to know whether it was safe to stay at the academy or not.

  Technically, he graduated with a basic education at the end of the semester, a mere three months ahead, but he didn’t know whether he could manage to hide his identify for that long. Just the short walk to the library, had him taking circuitous routes to avoid any Elite and General students approaching, so that no one would stop or question him. His initial feelings of panic gave way to paranoia.

  Once at the library though, he was free to roam about as he pleased. He made sure to check out a broad selection of material, downloading playable media that he could check through later, before finally settling on some of the physical books. He was forced to use the actual hardbound copies when his searches turned up that there were no digital versions available of the desired titles.

  Heaving the armful to the receptionist front desk, Neil tried to hide his impatience as he waited for the cyborg to check him out. It wasn’t too long, and soon he scooped his books into a reusable bag and hurried out of the library.

  Halfway back to his rooms, Neil realized that it was probably a better idea to stay in one of the free study areas to keep from drawing any attention to himself. It would also save him the trouble of running into either Kendall or Elyenka. They would no doubt seek him out and he wasn’t quite ready to speak about his potential secret—not until he had a better idea of whether it was dangerous or not.

  His friends had been very good to him, the few rays of light he’d had in his hard life, there was no way he would ever put them in danger—not deliberately or indirectly. If death would come simply from the fact that he was dragel, then he’d just have to find a way to leave and see where he could live—and whether there were any others out there. It was a big enough universe; surely there was someone out there in all the realms who could help. He’d just have to be persistent.

  Neil found himself a nice cozy spot on the far corner of the free study area and piled his literary booty on the low round table that was there. Curling up in one of the oversized armchairs, he cracked open the first book and scanned the table of contents.

  Several hours later, Neil let his head rest against the back of the chair, huffing out an exhausted sigh from the sheer exhaustion. He’d been prepared for a lot of things, but not a mysterious inheritance, not all of the abstract and vague information and most definitely not the absence of his magic.

  The most notable thing that he could take notice of was his still, very obvious lack of magic and it bothered him on a level that nothing else had ever touched before. He knew that if Elyenka knew, she would no doubt quiz him to death, and then she would analyze him to death, trying to see if he’d done something to trigger the lack of magic.

  He wondered if the accidental burst inside the tube had been his own doing and therefore the inciting incident that had led to his current state. Neil sighed. He had felt his magic surge up inside of him and he hadn’t bothered to stop it, but he was too old for such accidental bursts, so
it wasn’t possible that he’d been the one to cause the explosion.

  His eyes popped open as he heard a few approaching steps. He slid down the chair, shrugging his shoulders up to his hears, hoping to stay well out of sight. The last thing he wanted to be was noticed and if those were Elite students looking for a study spot, they’d probably ask him to move.

  He heard the voices approach, one of them talking in smooth, cultured whispers, while the other was short, frantic phrased. He thought one voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it and the new voices, the one that was all smooth, cultured richness, washed over him like sweet heaven.

  It was almost as if a verbal safety blanket was in reach and for a single, irrational moment, Neil wanted to throw himself out from the impromptu handing place and fling himself into the arms of the speaker.

  Thankfully, the urge passed almost as quickly as it had come and he held in the sigh of relief until he was sure that the footsteps had gone on their way. They’d spoken in a sweet, melodical language that he couldn’t place at all. It was a foreign tongue, but he couldn’t make out any discernible accents or notes that would hint at what it was.

  When silence reigned once more, Neil packed up his books and trotted back to the library. There was no way he was keeping the books any longer than he had to, and since he’d already read them, there wasn’t much chance of him rereading them.

  He hadn’t learned anything useful at all, except for a textbook description in an old encyclopedia, which mentioned dragels as strange, half humanoid creatures.

  According to it, dragels were said to be very powerful, physically and magically, with forms between dragons, halfings with half-human features and so on. They were made up of polyamorous mateships, denoted as Circles and each mate had a specified rank. There was an Alpha dominant, a Beta dominant and a Submissive that made up the operating triad. Other ranks fell beneath or around that, but authority was held by the triad and they functioned as a magical coven of sorts. The largest known mateship to the public was twenty seven bonded and seventeen children.

  Beyond that, Neil only learned that they had elemental ties, hence the shortened term of dragel, meaning an elemental dragon and then the notation that they were users of the now forbidden blood magic.

  The Federation was iffy on certain forms of Grey magic, as opposed to dark magic, but like Black magic that was forbidden—there were no specific rules for blood magic. It was simply something that was not to be used.

  Neil wondered about that, as it seemed that Blood Magic was a dragel’s primary magical type and whether the Federation had banned the use of it on account of dragels having or accessing such massive magical powers or if there was something else behind it.

  They had covered the various types of magic in their history lessons along with the reasons why certain spells were outlawed and so on, but he’d never given it too much thought before, simply because he didn’t have a need to do so.

  As part of his free education, he had to supply his service to the Federation through borderline patrols, training games and recruitment fairs, but he’d served his time and while it had certain brought about a host of unusual adventures—he did have the strangest luck at times—it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be.

  Kendall and Elyenka had both gone with him, the adventures they had were almost legendary among the students, but Neil preferred to keep a low profile and was thankful today for that even more as he slunk along the hallways, keeping away from the small gaggles of students who were returning from a full day of classes and part time work.

  He was somewhat relieved not to see his friends anywhere, but he also a bit disappointed that that they hadn’t come looking for him. He wondered if they were finally going out with each other, as they’d been spending an increasingly large amount of time together in close quarters and something would have to happen. While Elite students rarely did date out of their own ranks, Kendall and Elyenka had something going on between them and Neil knew he’d have to have been blind not to notice it.

  For all of his thick-headedness and stubbornness at times, Kendall was truly a very kind young man and his good heart was buried beneath some of the sarcastic layers that occasionally surfaced. Elyenka, for all of her genius, status and independence, was a brilliant, compassionate woman willing to keep an open mind along with her insatiable curiosity.

  He figured if they ever did, then they’d tell him at some point or another. He mentally resolved not to make too big of a deal about it. They would make a good couple, he reasoned, a cute one at the very least and Elyenka was always good at keeping things together for all three of them.

  He had worried that a romance might tangle things up, but he’d been seeing the signs for some time and Elyenka was a big girl, she was likely making an effort to keep her love life separate from her personal life, where all three of them were concerned.

  Neil shook his head, lightly. He wondered how Kendall would take that, but apparently they were still together and functioning, so that would remain to be seen. He smiled to himself and came to a stop outside of his bedroom.

  There was a flashing light on the intercom display that was near the key panel for the door. His smile grew larger. They had come to check up on him after all and apparently they’d left a message. It made his lonely evening a bit brighter.

  Pressing the button and keying in his room code, Neil listened as it played overhead, the doors sliding shut behind him. He deposited the rest of his library materials on the desk and picked up his tablet that held his homework. He’d have to double check it and send off what he had to make sure that his grades keep up their slightly above average levels. He’d worked hard to keep them as they were and he didn’t want to lose them now.

  The message played out and it was Elyenka who had stopped by, with Kendall in tow, both of them mentioning that his absence at two mealtimes meant that if he didn’t show up for dinner, they would request a public announcement of his whereabouts and he would be required to forfeit his dessert tickets for making them worry.

  He smiled to himself and made sure to check that his ID and Meal cards were secured to the inside loop on his trouser pocket. Heading out into the hallway, he started for the atrium, trying to decide on the shortest way possible to the cafeteria. It was sure to be a pain, but he was hungry, now that he thought of it and that hunger was making itself known quite plainly.

  He’d almost made it to the open area when a certain Derek Marsten decided that he hadn’t had enough entertainment for the day. He was flanked by three of his usual followers, the newest students of the season, the ones who hadn’t made any contacts yet or who had been told to befriend the rich and popular to secure their positions in life. They were often nervous, but loyal followers of anyone who held a higher social rank than they did.

  “Evening, Marsten,” Neil said, neutrally. He tipped his head in acknowledgement and made as if to skirt around the group. He really didn’t want to get into any sort of confrontation today and if he wasn’t careful, then things would get complicated.

  “There’s nothing good about it,” Derek said, nastily. “Nothing good at least, up until the moment that I saw your face.”

  Neil glowered at him. “I could say the same,” he countered. “It was almost good, and then you showed up.” He slipped around to the other side of the hallway, edging past, with the goal of the outer open area in mind.

  “Going somewhere?” Derek moved to block his escape. “I hear you’ve been absent all day. Your little posse was going around asking about you. Worried they were. Imagine that.”

  “Something came up,” Neil said, smoothly. He scowled when his way was blocked and made as if to turn to the other side.

  Derek moved at once, his cronies copying him perfectly. “Something? Like what, scholarship scum? You don’t even have enough free time to fill a standard itinerary card. What could have possibly have come up that was so important; you had to take care of it tod
ay? Do you know what today was?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll tell me whether I want to or not.”

  Derek’s eyes flashed, darkly. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” he growled. “You’re not.”

  “I don’t think I’m very smart at all,” Neil took a step back. “If I was smarter, I would’ve already been having my dinner, not standing her talking to an idiot like you.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you were trying to grow a pair,” Derek smirked. “Nice try, scum.” He gave a slight jerk of his head. “Your absence volunteered you as a test subject tomorrow,” he said, with great relish. “It’s actually quite fantastic.”

  Neil tried to keep his face as blank as possible. The words test subject set him on edge at once. A new, anxious feeling began to build up inside of him. There was something off about this encounter; he’d had enough of them with Derek to know how it usually went. They exchanged words. He insulted him. He almost got pummeled and them someone would appear out of nowhere before it could turn into a real fight.

  Noir Academy didn’t support fights between students, so to be caught engaged in any kind of antagonistic combat of a physical sense, beyond an intellectual duel of wits, was absolutely forbidden and the punishment could last weeks, if not months, de on which faction happened to stumble across you and which students happened to be involved

  Neil preferred to get out of his scraps as quickly as he could and then to get on his way as easily and efficiently as he could manage. Most of the time, Derek would ignore him if he was with Elyenka—since she had a habit of hitting him every time their paths crossed—and Kendall happened to be a whole foot and a half taller than the blond, so his presence automatically meant that no one would get into a fight that day.

  Whether Kendall actually knew to fight or not was an entirely different story, but Neil didn’t have time to think through all of that. He dodged the first fist that flew at his head and dropped to a defensive crouch.

  A sharp, strong scent caught his attention and he dodged the kick aimed at his side, angling for an opening on Derek’s weak left side. As he dodged closer again, the scent tickled his nose and a sharp, stabbing pain made him stumble.

  Derek’s fist glanced off of his right jaw and he went reeling, stumbling back into the wall, banging his head against the cool metal paneling. The shock was exactly that, a shock, but he barely managed to gather himself together, before his legs gave out and he crumpled to the ground, his stomach dry heaving.

  He saw the kick coming for his side and winced for the impact that made his entire side ache fiercely.

  A look of shock flickered briefly over Derek’s face before he composed himself, offering his trademark sneer and taking a step back as if kicking Neil had somehow managed to dirty his shoe.

  Before he could say anything—either of them—a shout drew their attention.

  Benjamin Carson came stood at the corner, his face a dark cloud. “What is going on here?” he demanded. His gaze flickered to Neil and something in his face said more than his mouth would have.

  Derek blanched and stumbled a step backward, supported by his nervous entourage. “N-nothing,” he stammered. “We’re just—he just started. He ate something bad. There’s something off in the—in the-” Derek licked his lips, throwing a glare back at Neil, before he turned and stalked off, his companions hurrying awkwardly after him.

  Neil blinked at the rapid departure, surprised to find that the heaving, sick feeling had vanished with them as well. He sat on the floor a moment longer, until Benjamin’s hand in front of his face, registered. His face warmed and he gingerly accepted the hand, rising to his feet, before he snatched it back—or tried to.

  Benjamin had a tight grip on his hand and looked him straight in the eye. “Is Marsten bullying you, Neilson?”

  Neil opened and shut his mouth. There wasn’t a safe answer to that and he wasn’t about to tattle on the blond idiot, not matter how stupid he was. He’d always been able to deal with his own problems anyway and he wasn’t about to drag anyone else into them, especially not an Elite student.

  “I fell down,” he said, his aching throat making the rasp sound even worse now. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Benjamin’s grip on his hand, tightened to nearly painful. “Really?”

  “Yes,” Neil said, tugging on his hand.

  Benjamin eyed him for a moment, and then sighed. “You can lie better than that, I hope.” He said, calmly. He released Neil’s hand and looked down the hallway where the blond and his companions had vanished. “If he bothers you again, I’ll know.”

  Neil felt his face beginning to grow warm and knew he was blushing every available shade of pink. “I don’t need your help,” he snapped. “I-“

  His words were cut off when Benjamin suddenly crowded him up against the wall, one hand braced over Neil’s head. He leaned down, keeping a decent few inches between them. His light hazel eyes had gone almost pitch black. “You don’t need my help?” he repeated.

  “N-no,” Neil stammered. “I’m-”

  ‘If you say you’re fine, I might just have to pull the truth out of you,” Benjamin warned.

  Something in the way he said it, made something inside of Neil perk up. He gulped. “I-I have to meet my friends for dinner.” He looked off to the side.

  Benjamin stepped back and gestured to the hallway, “Allow me to accompany you,” he said, mildly. “Just in case you happen to fall again.”

  “That’s fine,” Neil said, quickly. “I’m-“

  “Not fine, I know,” Benjamin said, calmly. “Shall we?”