The Dracomancer

PART TWO: LANA; CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: MORE UNUSUAL TALENTS

    Lana Irvine seemed to be as normal of a girl as she could be at first glance. She was 6’2” and beautiful with red hair. However, she was far from normal. She had been in a car accident with her parents at the age of seventeen. She had miraculously survived with minor injuries, but her parents were killed and the car was totaled. She stopped going to see her cousin, Alex, for two years after that. He was one of the only paternal relatives she had left, because her uncle died in war before either Alex or she were born. The only other paternal relative she had left since her parents died was her aunt.
    One day, she decided to visit Alex because it had been so long since she had seen him and she had recovered from the deaths of her parents. However, when she got there, her aunt told her that he had disappeared one month before. She decided that she would visit her aunt once a week from now on to help her cope with the loss, but she cried every night out of grief. She loved Alex. He was her favorite cousin even with his flaws. He seemed to be a kindred spirit, and it wasn’t just because they were cousins. Ever since she was little, she had the feeling that she didn’t belong on this world, despite being born on it. She somehow sensed that he felt the same way about himself, which was what made him seem like a kindred spirit.
    Two months after she had gone to her aunt’s house with the intention of visiting her cousin, her aunt gave her wonderful news. Alex had returned. When he came up from his room, she almost didn’t recognize him. Before he went missing, he had been 5’11” and slim; he now stood head and shoulders above her at 6’7” and was built like a brick house. His hair had been short and dirty blonde; it was now a brown so dark it was almost black and went just past his shoulders. He also had a Johan Hegg beard, which made him look that much more badass. He looked almost exactly like her uncle had in life, but he still had her aunt’s face, albeit with her uncle’s facial hair, which somehow looked good on him. She knew that he resembled his father more because she had seen pictures of her uncle.
    Lana’s abusive ex-boyfriend arrived shortly afterwards, but Alex scared him off. She would be forever grateful to him for that. He then told her that he was no longer human, but rather a dragon. She had seen a dragon appear in Callingwood Forest earlier that day and reported it to the police. She then found out that he was the dragon she had seen and realized why his arm was in a bandage. He had been shot. He forgave her for it, though. He also told her that he was a king on another world and that he would have to go back the following day. She begged him to take her with him and he eventually caved. He also said that he had a feeling that she had a role to play there.
    The following day, she went with him and his fiancée to the other world. When they arrived at the city he ruled from, they found everyone dead, save two children, who gave Alex a sword that apparently belonged to him. It was a beautiful weapon, worthy of a king or queen. Alex protected the children until they came across the bodies of their parents. Alex wreaked havoc upon the demons, who were responsible for the massacre, while reviving the dead. Alex’s mentor told them what Lana’s role was, and Lana broke down a bit before steeling herself for what was to come.
   When all of the demons were dead, they celebrated. Lana was asked out by one of Alex’s friends and said yes. Today was the first day of her real training. She was nervous, but she knew that her cousin would be patient with her. She was glad that he was training her because from what she had been told, he was the best.
   Lana’s first lesson was strategy with Serena. Alex thought of Serena as a mentor, so she trusted Serena to be as patient with her as Alex would be. Serena started off by telling her that it was better to have allies than enemies, but most of the time, nations had to start off as enemies to become allies. One nation would conquer the other and take control. If the conquered nation already had other nations under its control, the conqueror would win those nations by default. However, the conqueror also had to take certain measures to ensure that the conquered nations stayed under its control, otherwise the conquered nations could revolt at a time when the conqueror was weak and either take control, or leave the other nation altogether. If the newly conquered nation went without a leader for too long, it could break up into smaller, squabbling nations, each with a separate leader, and each weaker than when they were all one nation. It made sense to Lana because she had had a few friendships that had ended on a bad note, and the concepts were similar.
    After strategy, her lessons with Alex began. Alex started off with attack spells, teaching her a fire spell. She tried it on a fire proof practice dummy that Alex brought out, and the fire came out blue. Based on Alex’s facial expression, this was an unusual color for the fire spell, but he shrugged it off.
    Alex then started her lesson in defensive spells in Monarch Dragon form by telling her that defensive spells were fueled by stubbornness and could be performed in either form, but Lana was stuck in human form for this lesson. Alex taught her a simple shielding spell, and when she cast it, he spat fire at her. The shield seemed to absorb the attack and turn into a fire shield. Alex seemed utterly perplexed by this, as well, but didn’t say anything about it.
    Alex then went on to tell her that she needed to have a clear mind to see magical energies, and tested her on his sword, which he had placed a ward upon prior to this lesson. She saw all of the energies, and told him this. He congratulated her, then removed the ward. However, he seemed worried about this. Lana wasn’t sure why he was worried, but she had a feeling that her talents were unusual in a bad way.
    Next was shape shifting. Alex explained that determination made success in this school of magic more likely, then taught her Drake form. When she went into that form, they noticed that she had black scales. She could tell that this was unusual, as well.
    Alex then started her off with healing and resurrection. For this, he took her to where Felicia, his fiancée, was tending to the injured after telling her that happiness and love fueled healing while sadness and compassion made resurrection more likely. Felicia set them to heal a wild boar that was resisting her every attempt to calm it so she could heal it. Alex didn’t like that idea at first, but when Lana calmed it before healing it with happiness, both he and Felicia were impressed.
    Later, Alex went to Serena to tell her about his cousin’s talents. His own talents had been an indicator that he was a dormant Dragon God, so he was naturally worried. He knew that he was in full control of the Dragon God, but if Lana was a dormant god of some sort, he didn’t know if she would be able to control it when it awoke. He wasn’t surprised about Serena’s answer, but he somehow was no longer worried about her.
    "Based on what you just told me, Lana is a dormant Goddess of Magic," was Serena’s answer.
    "Is that good or bad?" Alex asked.
    "It is usually good. It is the least powerful of the gods and has zero chance of corrupting its host. As the Dragon God, you are the most powerful god, Alexander, which is why I was initially worried about it. However, despite being that and the High King, you are still one of the least corrupt and most down-to-earth persons I know. So far, your cousin seems to be like you in that respect, but we’ll see how things go," Serena answered.
    "Now that I think about it, it makes a little bit of sense. She’s the only paternal relative I have left since her parents died two years ago. She was only seventeen when that happened, and she stopped coming to visit me until recently because she was so shaken by their deaths," Alex replied.
    "That certainly would be tragic. She made a surprisingly quick recovery from it, all things considered. If that had happened to me, it would have taken me much longer to recover," Serena responded.
    "Same, but my father died in a war before I was born. I had no idea that he was reborn on this world as the Demon King until he told me. Quite frankly, I’m glad he told me. What he said about my mother and the advice he gave me on parenting made me realize he wasn’t completely evil. It hurt me to kill him, but I had no other choice," Alex said.
    "I understand, Alexander. He was your father in a past life and as you said then, his intentions for doing what he did were good, but you were also right when you said that his actions were unforgiveable," Serena replied. "Nevertheless, if you had had second thoughts about it, I wouldn’t have blamed you, but I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him myself. I know more demon magic than what I’ve taught you, and it is quite effective against demons."
    "So that’s your specialty. Demon magic."
    "Yes. Come to think of it, I would like to teach Lana some of the demon magic that I haven’t taught you. She may need it more than you."
    "I don’t mind you teaching her demon magic, but why didn’t you teach me?" Alex asked.
    "Because I had a feeling you wouldn’t need to know it. As it turned out, my own instincts weren’t leading me astray. A Dragon God is powerful enough that he doesn’t need demon magic to defeat his enemies, no matter how powerful. I merely taught you the demon magic you know because I realized later that you would need to know at least some demon magic. Plus, I was already planning to give you Shadowsbane, which is just as effective against demons. However, your cousin will not be trained in swordplay, so she’ll need to be able to defend herself with something," Serena answered.
    "I’m beginning to understand, but demon magic probably would have saved me when I was hanging from the crucifix," Alex replied.
    "True. However, Felicia’s sacrifice angered you enough to wake the Dragon God, so all in all, you didn’t need demon magic even then."
    "I know that, but what if she had kept her promise and stayed with you? Odds are, I probably wouldn’t have got out of that."
    "I hadn’t thought of that. I’m sorry, Alexander. I should have taught you demon magic. However, you won’t need it now that you’re the Dragon God, so there’s no point in teaching you now."
    "It’s alright. I guess I overreacted a little. I’m sorry for that."
    "No need to apologize. I made a mistake. However, I’m glad you were able to get out of it. I’m disappointed in Felicia for going ahead of us to try to save you, but it turned out to be for the best. For one thing, her death angered you enough to wake the Dragon God. For another, you revived her with your tears, which had the secondary effect of turning her into a Monarch Dragon. However, I have a feeling that if you were to do it with the Dragon God’s tears again, it would have a less beneficial effect. The secondary effect of the Dragon God’s tears isn’t always the same and is very unpredictable. We’re lucky it was beneficial that time."
    "It was beneficial in more ways than one. We now have a queen I love and because she’s a Monarch Dragon, there won’t be a revolt."
    "True, but if she was still a Lesser Dragon, there would almost certainly be a revolt."
"I know. She already told me that," Alex replied.
    "I’m glad for that," Serena responded.
    "Anyhow, you might want to see how she’s doing. I have a feeling she wants to see you," Serena concluded.
    "See you tomorrow, then," Alex replied.
    "See you tomorrow, Alexander."