Before I confronted the expert I had a quick chat with Nicholas. He confirmed her existence and that she was actually an expert. Curious. Apparently the runes I had introduced during my last visit had drawn some attention.

It put me in a better mood. It looked like a simple misunderstanding. Maybe I could clear up the situation and ensure it did not happen again.

"We are going to visit this Kira next?" Lucy asked.

I nodded. "We have to make sure she does not give bad advice about runes in the future. And I am curious what theory she has that changed my runes."

Lucy yawned. "Magic theory is boring."

"Ah, I remember when you were more excited about magic." I replied, with a smile.

"Oh, I like magic." Lucy held up her hand and let electricity dance around it. "I am still fascinated by it. I truly enjoy using it. But it's… an instinct now. It's part of me. Studying runes and books has lost its appeal."

"You enjoyed the aura training." I mused.

Lucy nodded. "As I said, I like magic. I like using it. But practical exercise and studying runes is different. I am leaving the rituals to you."

"But then you will never know what my devious rituals do. I could trick you." I teased.

"Your rituals are probably designed to give me more tails. You are kind of obvious, you know." Lucy replied with a smirk.

I looked at her tails. Then I grabbed one and petted it. Lucy hit me in the face with the other three tails. So fluffy…

We arrived at the inn but the expert was not there. So we decided to wait, while having some food and drink. The inn was pleasant but it did not serve any high level specialities. It felt… normal. Something I had not experienced in a while.

We sat there for two hours until a woman entered. She had long turquoise hair with purple streaks. Her amethyst eyes found us and she stopped. She wore a light blue robe with a silver trim. She might just be the air mage we had been looking for.

I got up and approached her, she seemed wary.

"Greetings, are you Kira?" I asked.

"Who wants to know?" She replied, then she frowned as she saw Lucy. Or more likely the four tails.

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"I am Amaya Delphinium and this is Lucy Delphinium." I introduced ourselves. Something about the women was strange. I was not sure what I was feeling.

"She smells curious." Lucy replied.

"I beg your pardon!" Kira complained.

Lucy frowned. "I don't think she is human."

"Not here." Kira hissed. "Follow me to my room."

This took an interesting turn. I was not concerned about an ambush so we followed her. Once inside her room she closed the door and started casting a ward.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked.

"She is guarding against eavesdroppers." I explained. I recognised the spell.

"Yes!" Kira said, after finishing. Then she stared at me. "You! You are the one who released those runes. What were you thinking?"

I crossed my arms. "My runes are good, you changed them so they did not work properly."

"Of course I did! You can't go around giving mortals air control runes! They are not supposed to have such knowledge!" She complained.

I blinked. I had expected a misunderstanding, or incompetence, or sabotage by my enemies,... Not this. "Who are you?"

"I am Kira Stormbringer!" She replied.

I scratched my head. "Uh, that does not tell me anything."

Lucy stepped closer to the woman and sniffed.

"What is with the sniffing?!?" Kira complained.

"Trying to figure out what you are." Lucy replied.

"I am a storm dragon!" Kira stated.

My eyes lit up. "Uhh, I always wanted to meet a dragon!"

"You… what?" Kira looked confused.

"Cool. How big are you? Shouldn't you have a tail and horns?" Lucy asked.

"I can shapeshift into a normal human. It's not as natural as my dragonkin shape but it's better as a disguise… Wait, we are getting sidetracked. You can't hand this precious knowledge over to mortals. They will do terrible things with it. They always do." Kira complained.

"Eh, they need it for my train. Also, we are going to turn Iron Rock into a centre of magic. I want to teach them more things." I replied.

"That is a terrible idea! You can't trust mortals." She complained.

"Why are you so against them?" Lucy asked.

"They slay dragons! They want our scales." Kira said.

"But dragons are kind of strong." I pointed out. "How much of a threat are they?"

"The ancient dragons are fine, sure. But they rarely bother with anything. We have to protect our young ones." Kira said.

"Hm. You know, we want Iron Rock not just as a centre of magic for mortals. I want fey and demons here too. Why not some dragons? You could become a teacher. I want this to be a place where all sorts of creatures can mingle. And if some cause problems we can deal with them." I explained.

"You are awfully confident. I know your girlfriend has four tails but how strong are you?" Kira asked.

I grinned, then I hit her with my full aura.

Kira gasped, her legs trembled and she fell to her knees. She stared at me with wide eyes, as my aura filled the room. I had been very careful not to hit the entire city with a storm. I was getting better and better at handling my aura. Right now I just tried to establish my domain within the room.

"You… you are an ancient…" Kira mumbled.

"She is the Lady of Storms." Lucy added, looking amused.

My demonstration was a success so I retracted my aura. Kira looked a bit disoriented.

"How strong are you?" I asked, frowning.

Kira swallowed. "I only just started developing an aura. I am about 213 years old. Dragons are strong from birth and all reach the 9th circle of magic eventually. Not all of us enter the aura stages though. The ancients who reached the third aura stages are all over 2000 years old. You… you feel like them."

Hm. I realised that I did not know much about dragons. In the game they were not necessarily on a demon lord level. They were just rather strong, I suppose. A group of high level mortals could take down a dragon. It made sense that some of them were concerned with mortals. I had just imagined the ancient ones, the true powers, would protect the others.

But this was also an opportunity. An opportunity to recruit some dragons, or at least one. I smiled.

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