The Erudite had been right – there was a lot of paperwork.

I was being pardoned for crimes on both the Isle of Dreki and in the nation of Cendel, some of which I didn't even remember committing, and each crime seemed to take multiple different pages of writing to go over it all as it cross referenced and sought approval from at least three different law codes: the high king's law, the laws of the various ealdorman of the holds, and the thanes of different regions.

And that wasn't even counting the ones that required working with the Isle of Dreki, which were even longer. I felt bad for all of the poor trees that had to have been processed into paper for this.

The paperwork for entry to the Coven of the Twilight Grotto was dead simple by comparison, as a membership was awarded into the group for a person's meritorious service, scholarly excellence, and combat prowess. It came with a complete scholarship through all three years of education at the Citadel.

Since I was already one year in, the first year would be used to reimburse my previous scholarship, though I'd have to cover the extra money that said scholarship had granted. That was pretty banal, but the two other listed benefits were where things got a little more exciting.

If I accepted, I would receive a grant of five thousand, one hundred and seventeen freshly minted coins. The number, as well as the requirement of it being a fresh minting, struck me as odd, but it had apparently been set close to four hundred years ago, with a clause that updated it alongside inflation, which explained the strange number.

I'd been impressed when I read the number, but when I noticed the little 'g' symbol, rather than the 's' symbol, my eyes had widened.

That wasn't five thousand silver – it was five thousand gold.

That was over fifty thousand silver. That might not be a massive amount compared to what my family had in its banking vaults, but it was still a rather considerable amount.

It had been several years since the courses that I'd been given in the Dreki compound that taught financial literacy and investment, but I had done excellent in those courses, and my memory was pretty good.

My mind immediately started swimming with the possibilities of what I could do with this as seed money, but I slammed down on the impulse. Not only was it too draconic for my tastes, but I also needed to finish working on paperwork.

I let my eyes fall on the third and final listed reward for membership in the coven, and narrowed my eyes.

The text simply listed the reward as "A bound signet ring, indicating membership in the coven", and that was enough to set me on edge.

A bound ring meant it was definitely enchanted, but… Was that it? Taking on a permanent magical binding was no small thing, as I'd started to see with spells like lesser planar contract.

From what I remembered, my family had occasionally bought and sold bound items, but their power and binding requirements varied wildly: from simple enchantments bound to only work for one person, to truly mighty weapons that could only be used by someone that meet all of the item's requirements and would stop functioning if the wielder broke one, to ones that forced their bound user to act a certain way.

I had no idea what sort of item this was, so I hemmed and hawed over it for some time, turning it over in my head. In the end, I was spared making the decision by Salem peeking his head into the room. I looked up and smiled at him.

"Salem! Glad to see you're alright."

"Same ta' you," Salem agreed. "S' not everyday tha' you wind up goin' through the ringer like tha', is it?"

"Definitely not," I agreed. "Hey, have you heard of the Coven of the Twilight Grotto?"

Salem pursed his lips for a moment, sucking on one of his silver snake bite piercings, then shook his head.

"Nah, cannae say I 'ave. Why?"

I went over everything that the Erudite had talked about, and Salem listened, before nodding his head and shrugging.

"Ya' could always check the school records an' trophies n' such, see if it's got more information. But I dun' think it'd be harmful or anythin'. S' meant to be a reward, not a punishment."

"True," I agreed. "I'd still rather get some research on it first. Not too much longer in bed, then I can be up and about again."

"Aye, true enough. Though, I gotta ask, are ya' still gonna be takin' the second year a' Applied Mage Combat?"

"I think so," I said. "It was useful for deceiving my family, and didn't he say we'd learn the process body spell? It sounds like there is going to be some more traditional applications of magic, rather than just throwing us against monsters."

"Throwin' us against monste's'll' till happen?"

"It'll what?" I asked, barely hiding my smile as he slurred the words into one garbled mess.

"Aye, yah, you know what I mean," Salem said, though he was smiling, before his smile slowly sank away. "M' glad tah see you're recoverin' well. When ya' slammed into the shields after Gerhard's transformation…"

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"I'm still not entirely sure what that was," I admitted. "I thought I'd reached the limits of what I could do with my bloodline, but I'm not so sure now."

Though I didn't say it, the comment about the matriarch beginning to step into godhood with her bloodline power also came to mind, as did the nation of Ketsalkuetspalaltepetl that Charm had mentioned offhandedly.

"I dinnae know either," Salem said, frowning. "It wasn't an aberrant transformation, since he reverted, but maybe somethin' halfway? Like my own… form?"

"Maybe. But he was fighting pretty standard for a Dreki, up until he broke out that form. I'm not sure. I need to look in the library."

"Wit' defeatin' your brother an' all, good odds it'll give ya' somethin' really good."

I perked up. He was right, that was definitely possible. More than that, it was plausible. Hadn't the woman I'd spoken to mentioned getting a great book after confronting her personal issues?

Salem and I stayed for a while longer, chatting randomly about whatever came to mind before the nurse came and called lights out, kicking him from the room. The next few days, I was visited by my friends several more times.

I also spent some time practicing ether manipulation. Stuck in bed, and not allowed to practice any serious spellcraft, I worked on Xander's massage and Willow's path, and I actually managed to complete the massage.

The path technique had grown much more difficult, with my expanded ether pool, so I spent a good bit of time puzzling over the orb, working my ether through its paths to train the fidelity of my manipulation.

The rest of my spirit seemed to be in good shape as well.

When I'd snapped my connection to the Dreki matriarch, I'd feared that it would have destroyed my fire, but if anything, the flame seemed to be more responsive than ever. It wasn't any larger or denser, but it seemed to move more freely.

Effervesce's boon had been used, and with it, the strange, unnatural sensation of being connected to a presence vast enough that it could envelop and destroy me without effort vanished. There was a slight hole in my spirit where it once had been, like the hole left when someone removed a piercing, which the priests assured me was a harmless connection to divine energy and faith.

I'd worried a bit about some malicious god using it against me, like how the matriarch had consumed her children, but the elderly priest who had accompanied Jackson spoke to me when I brought it up.

"To be frank, if it was in the remit of the god to interfere with you, they could do as much without you having a direct connection," he said. "But the rules of the gods are complex and mysterious. There is a reason that not every murderer bears the mark of Suhuiab, nor every healer the blessings of Effervesce. But, as a wizard and dragon, you can usually resist the workings of gods."

"Usually?"

"If the divine has a direct connection to you, such as if you were to perform the sacrificial ritual to appease a dark god, if you were to give an offering to a god, or were to form a strong bond to one through something like marrying one of their children, the god would have greater sway. Still, you could try."

I shuddered at that, wondering just how much I would have been able to resist if it were not for my separation from the Dreki family for so long.

In between my practice, I had several more visitors. Charm and Fable came by, offering me warm congratulations, and making sure that I didn't worry about missing work, which I thanked them for, as well as for the branch of dappled hawthorne. I'd used every bit of ether and fire in the fight, and my staff had expanded my pool, so in a very real way, I couldn't have done it without them.

"Not to mention getting people out of the arena without letting demons escape and taking some down yourself," I added. "Really, I mean it. Thank you both. So much."

Both assured me that it was no trouble at all, before heading out to return to their store. Professor Caeruleum and Toadweather swung by as well, the tiny pixie riding on the shoulder of the half-angelus, which led to another round of me thanking people for their help.

On the day I was to be released, I received a familiar, if unexpected, and not entirely pleasant, visitor.

"Hello, brother," I said, rising from my bed. I felt fine by this point, and even the nurses weren't too concerned. After all, I'd be let free in a few hours.

Gerhard stood in the doorway to my room, arms folded. He wore a suit and was immaculately groomed, as always, but there was something distinctly different about him. His posture wasn't quite as imposing as it once had been.

I took a breath, and his bloodline seemed… strong. As strong as it had always been, and maybe even stronger than it had been before the duel, though not by much.

"You seem well," I said.

"As do you," he agreed. "I think we may be the only two Dreki who weren't drained of power by our mother."

"She wasn't my mother. Not anymore. I broke that connection. Did you?"

"No," Gerhard said, his face troubled. "I don't know entirely why I was spared. My best guess is that since my fire was completely empty, there was nothing for her to latch onto."

"That would make sense."

"Indeed. Either way, it means that I am now one of the strongest members of the Dreki family, perhaps even the strongest. I am going to return home. Will you join me?"

"No."

"I figured as much," Gerhard said. "Fine. I won't try to press the issue."

He said it as if it were some great favor, but we both knew that was his posturing. He didn't have a leg to stand on, now that I was a citizen of Cendel. The family might be able to put financial pressure on Cendel if it really wanted me, but trade wars tended to hurt both partners. It was antithetical to the hoarding nature he followed to do that.

"Do you know what she meant, when she called me the Kindling?" I asked. "And what was that transformation you used? I've never seen our bloodlines ever do anything like that."

"Tell you what," Gerhard said after a long time. "I'm going to make you an offer. You didn't like the way the Dreki family ran things. I don't really care."

"Great offer so far," I snarked, pulling my staff out and leaning on it. The action caused Gerhard to flinch. It was brief, his skill as a statesman letting him regain composure nearly immediately, but I'd seen it.

"It's the truth. I feel it would be folly to build a new relationship on a foundation of lies. I don't really care if the people live in hovels and die of dysentery, so long as they allow me to continue my lifestyle."

He held up a finger, cutting me off before I could say anything.

"But, and this is important, you do. The Isle is going to have to undergo some major political revisions, with our military might so severely damaged. To be frank, I'm not certain that we could survive if we had to withstand a simultaneous peasant revolt and external invasion, especially if food supply lines were blockaded."

I watched him, waiting to see where he was going with this. He was right – the island would need to adapt rapidly if it were to survive, especially since there was no clear line of succession. Even if there had been, none of the surviving Dreki could have matched the matriarch's power.

"As I said, I am one of the most powerful Dreki still alive. I know you aren't a family member, but I saw what you and your friends did to the ember-roc, and I saw what you did to me. Help me establish a firm control over our – my – mother's finances, and I'll see that we adopt a four-branched political system on the island."

"I'm listening…"

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