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After Vruulkthaz was done lecturing Thryz and unironically sent her adult son to his room, she walked in on me and Professor Sageira talking. [Sgaer’khathz, I think I have waited long enough for an explanation.]
Professor Sageira sighed and said, [A promise is a promise, but after you have my explanation, I want you to support me and Luke when I present him to the other elders.]
[My support depends on the explanation. As long as you did not pull off some kind of dark ritual to give him access to our magics or anything like that, we should be fine.] Vruulkthaz said as she got comfortable.
***
After the explanation of how I came to be capable of the Dragon Tongue language and its magic, Vruulkthaz was rubbing her chin as she pondered if what she heard was even possible, but apparently, she scryed the whole fight without my knowledge, so she could not say she did not have visual proof of our claims.
To banish all further doubts, Vruulkthaz asked me to demonstrate Dragon Tongue magic in front of her. I looked to Professor Sageira, and she gave me a nod to go ahead.
I decided to keep things simple and said [Flame] while pushing my will into the word. A wisp of flame was willed into existence, and from that flame, I shaped it into the form of an eagle-sized dragon and animated it to make it look like it was flying around my head. All the while, I could see that Vruulkthaz was hyper-focused on me, or more specifically, what my mana was doing.
When Vruulkthaz was done observing, she nodded and said, [Excellent mana and will control, better than a lot of young adult wyrms. As for how you managed to pull it off, that is what worries me. If you can do it, so can others who are able to use the air element of instinctive magic. If this knowledge spreads, it would break the balance of power in this world. We may be looking at centuries of war.]
[No need to worry about that part. I have already secured a Soul Oath from Luke. Only he and his bloodline descendants will be taught how to use Dragon tongue and its magic, and only upon my approval. As for how he uses air instinctive magic, it is not as simple to copy as it seems, so I would not be so worried about that.] Professor Sageira assured.
Vruulkthaz narrowed her eyes at me. [True enough, even while looking at his mana, I am not sure how he manipulated his air instinctive magic to pronounce our tongue… So how did you do it, Luke Ironcrest?]
Stolen story; please report.
[That is for me and my future children to know. No matter the race of the mage, you would not force me to reveal my methods, would you?] I said as I returned the look.
When it comes to magic and the discovery of new spells and techniques, it is considered much more than poor taste to try to force magical secrets out of a mage. In fact, it was borderline taboo. More than a few mages throughout history have been forced to divulge their reasearch by those of higher standing or at the threat of violence to the mage or their loved ones, and rarely did it end well.
In most cases, when the information is successfully extracted from the mage, there is usually critical missing information that can backfire or even kill the person who uses the faulty information. But that is not the primary reason why forcing magical secrets out of a mage is borderline taboo, the main reason is the ripple effect if it is discovered that the information was extracted under duress.
No mage would willingly work with or under someone who forces magical secrets out of a mage. There were kings, emperors, and nobles who had done so in the past, and once the word of their deeds spread, within less than a generation, their country or territory would experience brain drain, as once the mages leave, the skilled, educated, and knowledgeable people will think they are next and leave as well. This applied to almost all races capable of reason.
[No] Vruulkthaz said with a flat voice, [It would be most dishonorable if anyone were to force such knowledge of a soon-to-be legacy such as yours.] She then turned to Professor Sageira and said, [I will support you when Luke is introduced. Call for the meeting of elders.] she then turned to me and said, [You will be my hornered guest until we leave for the meeting.]
***
I had to wait four days due to one of the wyrm elders being away on business before we left the cave. But those four days were not wasted.
In those four days, Vruulkthaz hired me as a training partner for her son, Thryz. Apparently, she heard from Professor Sageira about my family’s financial obligations and understood the troubles of a new noble family such as mine, especially one that was suddenly given more land than they could easily handle.
So I was quite surprised when she offered to pay me for my time, as I thought I would be doing it as a favor to Professor Sageira. But who was I to say no to a payday?
The moment I agreed, Vruulkthaz stuck her hand into what I could only assume was some sort of subspace storage and pulled out a strongbox large enough for me to fit inside if I tucked my legs in. [I assume this much would be enough?] she asked.
When I flipped open the latch and opened the top, my eyes went wide. It was filled to the brim with gold coins of different designs, gem-encrusted jewels, and polished gems. And that was all, only at a glance at the top layer, who knew what was buried underneath. It was like someone just scooped a bunch of valuables and chucked it in the strongbox, and with the size of Vruulkthaz’s hands, she may have done just that.
I bowed my head while saying, [That is more than enough, I am at your service.]
Professor Sageira just chuckled as she helped me store the strongbox in her own subspace storage.