It probably should have occurred to somebody that me pouring mana into anything was maybe not the best plan. I couldn't blame Professor Auri'Cran, they couldn't have known that. But maybe Celica and I should have prepared for something to go wrong.

Celica's plant was starting to grow. Little leaves growing on thick stems curled up tightly. A frond about the size of a quarter on its side. It was one singular color, Celica purple.

Mine was starting to grow too. But it was smaller than Celica's, which was fine and probably normal. Short spikey leaves in a cluster barely the size of the tip of my pinkie. The part that was concerning, and maybe a clue this was a bad idea, was that the leaves were two colors. My pink, but speckled with little dots of curse green.

Yeah. Probably not a good sign.

At least no one was getting hurt this time. I just had to hope that the professor didn't notice and ask me.

I scratched at the curse through the gloves of the uniform.

Gloves. Red wore gloves all the time. But hers were all black and covered her entire hand.

I couldn't remember if she wore them during every one of our meetings, but I was confident it was a majority of them.

I needed to think about the other details.

A pocket watch. The unfamiliar scars on her hands. A sixth Dragon.

It was like some kind of messed up prophecy. All it needed was to be poetically written.

"Something wrong?" Celica asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Besides the obvious? Maybe. I think the plant picked up the curse."

There was a momentary pause, then Celica poked at the pot my plant was in. Nothing happened, but the dark green of the curse contrasted too heavily with my coral pink for it to hide.

It couldn't hide from me any more than I could run from it.

I glared at the petals, not that any of this was their fault.

"Are you worried that Cran's going to ask?" Celica asked after I had stared the flora down for a little too long.

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"A little," I responded. I stopped looking at my plant to turn to her. "What did you call the professor?"

"Hmm? Oh right. Don't worry about it. It's okay sometimes to drop the location half of a last name." She sounded so casual about it. It was a little forced though. A truth, but maybe not something she wanted to talk about in depth.

"I'm just going to keep calling them Auri'Cran." It wasn't much, but a good excuse for her to only say whatever she was comfortable with.

"Well yeah, it would be rude for you not to. It's not rude for me because of elf stuff."

"Sounds complicated so I'm just going to trust you on that one."

She laughed, though it lacked humor. She traced the outside of her pot with one hand. Yeah, she didn't want to talk about it, but that was okay.

"In the spirit of simplicity, I'm just going to keep calling you Celica."

"I would hope so. I only call you Stewart when you annoy me."

"I figured as much. I've just never felt the need to do the same."

"I think that's why we like having you as leader. So you're not allowed to go anywhere, okay?"

"Okay."

I think that made her feel a bit better. She didn't speak again for the rest of the class. Just sitting there while we listened to Auri'Cran talk about what leaf shapes meant.

Most of it went over my head. And none of the diagrams they showed looked like out plants. I wondered if it was a good idea to ask for Celica's thoughts about my plant later. Probably not.

She was still quiet as we left the classroom. She looked deep in thought and troubled by whatever was on her mind. We walked together for a little bit, but then she grabbed the end of my sleeve.

Her hand was shaking.

"Celica?" I prompted. I carefully took her wrist in my other hand, pulling her away from the crowd and into a small section of the wall. It wasn't really private, but the dull roar of the crowd would have to do.

"You're handling this better than I thought you would be," she said after a moment. The shaking in her hands had stopped, but she wasn't making eye contact.

"Handling what?"

"What happened last night."

Of course. Red being me. And Red's death at the hands of the wraith. I should have known that was still upsetting them all.

"I think it might be shock. Also been running through what I know to try and guess how much time I have. We still have time. I don't have specifics, but I have enough clues to know we probably have to at least the end of this year."

"That's not much time."

"Not really. But maybe enough time for us to change fate. And there is a chance we have more. Either way, I'm not scared. Maybe I will be, but for now I'm just focusing on doing what I can."

"What if it's not enough?"

I took a deep breath. It was a fear I understood all too well, but I had no idea how to comfort her. The best idea I had was a bad joke. "I thought you said you didn't want a sentimental speech?"

"You could run. You'd probably be safe back in Massachusetts."

"Maybe. But if I'm really the true target of…Massachusetts is filled almost entirely with humans. That could risk making everything worse. Here I know the danger that's coming. I can prepare in that case."

"What if we're not enough?" Celica asked. It was barely more than a whisper.

"I don't think anything can stop this, if that's the case," I told her. "For what's worth, I think it's far too early to give up."

I was too stubborn for that. Besides, at this point what would running truly accomplish? If I left, Dragon Tower would close again. No Dragon Tower meant dealing with Death's Echo becomes harder than the already mammoth task it was. So I had to stay.

Being a Dragon meant more to me than I ever thought it would. And I knew why. Magic had nothing to do with it. I wanted to keep my friends in my life. And if Red was telling the full truth, they were safer with me around than they would be without me.

I was staying. No regrets, no looking back.

I promised myself, didn't I?

She'd begged me. What did she know that I didn't? What happened? Or would asking what was going to happen be more accurate?

I couldn't falter now.

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