I stood there silently for a moment as I tried to process what just happened. It was just me staring at the spot where Red no longer stood. The book still sitting on the table, displaced from the shelf by whatever temporal nonsense was responsible for all of this.

Had she always had the ability to hang up on me like that?

Other people on her side could see me?

Who was M?

"And you still don't have any kind of insight on what in the hells is going on with her?" I asked Dragon Tower only my last question.

There was a rumble on the floor, it sounded something like a shrug and moved the book she left behind closer to me.

What was the point of living in an ancient and sentient Tower if it didn't have any answers? Two thousand years of memories and not a single one was helpful.

Not sure what else I could do, I picked up the book she left behind. Foundations of Healing. Healing magic? I'd had my brushes with it so far, but it hadn't been on my mind much. I opened it, I couldn't be sure if Red picked it for my sake or hers but curiosity won out over annoyance.

It was the title of the fourth chapter that got my interest. Saving One's Own Skin.

Spells and ways to treat my own injuries?

I looked at my left hand.

It was far from the worst idea I'd considered since coming here.

If my magic was going to require me being injured to use for the foreseeable future, then knowing how to deal with my own injuries was going to be helpful.

I wondered if Mom knew any healing spells?

(*********)

I was still in the workroom skimming through the healing spells when someone knocked on the table in front of me. Once, thrice, pause, twice.

I looked up to see Jarec standing across from me.

"Healing spells? Please tell me it didn't take you this long to think about those." He teased. I wasn't sure how serious he was on how obvious the idea should have been. I would cite lack of magic knowledge if he pushed.

"I have a lot on my mind, okay?"

"I have to take your word for it," he said as he sat down in front of me. "But I've been thinking too."

I waited for him to continue and when he didn't, "Okay?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to word this."

"Are you talking to me as a friend, cousin, or Tower Representative?"

"First two."

I purposely tried to relax myself and closed my book. My instinct to bring my legs up and the habit of forcing myself to sit straight in chairs like these were fighting each other.

Jarec took a deep breath after closing his eyes. When he opened them there was a look there I hadn't seen before. "Your father. What…what does he know? What should I expect?"

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Oh. We were having this conversation. "He's…like me, personality wise. Or…I'm more like him than I am like my mother."

"Right. But does he…"

"He knows about magic. Since before they were married. He's usually very willing to follow Mom's lead on anything related to it."

"Was it him that kept you out of magic schools or…"

"They talked about it when they thought I couldn't hear or wasn't paying attention. The main reason was my lack of magic. Mom always told me that if I developed powers later then they'd reopen the conversation. Dad just nodded."

"That doesn't tell me what to expect."

"There isn't really a way to I can explain it to you. Him and Mom work together more often than apart."

Jarec's face did something weird, it was hard for me to identify. "You really are from another world, huh?"

"It won't be so bad. Dad's not the type to cause trouble." Unlike me and Mom.

"It'll be weird. Do you know I've never met a human before?"

"I'd never met another person with magic before coming here. So I think we'll be even."

"That explains a few things."

"What?"

"What? I hope you didn't think you were subtle. It was pretty obvious."

I shouldn't have been surprised. Of course blending in was more complicated than that. "How bad is it?"

"The way you dress for one. Not enough colors. And rarely ever the right ones."

"Please remember that my mother is useless and talk to me like someone who has no exposure to any cultural norms of any kind."

Jarec was quiet for a moment before laughing. "Think of it like a statement of intent."

I blinked silently at him. Not that he would understand the cue to continue right away. But my lack of verbal response seemed to do it.

He tugged at the front of his hair, the green streak amongst the light brown strands. "Want to know why I have this?"

"Sure?" I had no idea where any of this was going but perhaps letting the conversation happen would help me blend in a bit better.

"Before I got here, I decided it would be better to keep my Hearth connections more of a secret. I always go by Quicksilver and their heraldry is green and silver. So I borrowed the green both to strengthen that connection and give hints to others around me that I was from somewhere."

That was a lot of thought for a bit of hair dye.

"And then we have you who wears too much black."

"And what's wrong with black exactly?"

"Nothing's wrong. But it doesn't mean anything. It's the nothing color. You're saying there's nothing about you at all. Just a blank void."

"Maybe I'm trying to say I don't want to be noticed?"

"I might have believed that. If you didn't go an immediately go an open a door that's been locked for a century."

"On accident!"

"Maybe. But still."

"In your opinion then, what colors should I be wearing more of? Please specify."

"Well traditionally, you're supposed to wear the color of your magic or your coven."

"I don't like pink."

"Do you even know our coven's colors?"

"Echo Blue and Dragon Red."

"Wow she actually told you something helpful."

"While she was here."

"And couldn't run from it anymore," he grumbled.

I should probably be defending my mother here, but given everything it was hard to not side with Jarec on that one.

"I don't think I own anything blue," I mumbled instead. "I do have one red shirt though."

"You do?! I haven't seen you wear it."

"I brought it but was worried it was too bold."

"Serafina. Bold would do you so many favors. And we're Dragons! We're supposed to be bold."

"Says who?"

"Us."

"Okay. I'll…think about."

"No. You think too much."

"You don't know that." Mine was the one mind he couldn't read, therefore he couldn't judge how much I thought about anything.

"Maybe. What else are you hiding in your wardrobe? A secret stash of nail polish or something?"

"It's not a stash. Just a single bottle."

Jarec sighed, like I was some kind of burden.

"It's not… I just… I don't know what I'm doing most of the time with this stuff. It's hard to judge where lines are."

Jarec frowned and leaned forward in his chair. His eyes were narrowed but he wasn't looking at me. At something in the distance behind me. Was I not the only one he was having a conversation with?

"Do you…do you dress differently here than you did among humans?"

"A little."

"Okay. Then how about you show us how you dressed there?"

"What if that doesn't mean anything? It might not change anything."

"Only one way to ever find out. You can trust us."

"I do, it's just…" My own instincts. Something in my heart and head that wanted to run and hide.

"You don't have to. But you're one of us. Regardless."

"Next weekend. On Saturday." I would need the time to work up my nerves for that.

He smiled. Which made the parts of me that were still screaming a bit sooth, but my stomach was still in knots.

Dragons were supposed to be bold. Maybe. I was a Dragon. definitely. And Russel had a human mother. Jarec had yet to reveal any kind of bad intention. I couldn't see Fethris reacting much. But maybe Celica? This was her kind of thing.

Dragon. Bold.

I remembered my talk with Mom. About how I wanted them to see all of me.

Something had to be the first step. Maybe this was it.

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