Ginger could hardly stand being in Professor Mara’s presence. He kept gulping down mouthfuls of saliva. He was nearly full from that alone.

  The only saving grace was the fact that he wasn’t alone. There were other dragonlings going for a Hunt this Breather like him. Ginger was among them, sharing the crippling anxiety that came with waiting to procure their weapons from the handsome instructor.

  Since it was lunchtime, Professor Mara wasn’t in a rush.

  He whisked away one dragonling at a time and disappeared with them – likely to have them sign a few forms. It felt extremely official and… serious. A bit too serious, really.

  Suddenly, Reiss’ concerns from back then, when he broke his hammer in the Beginner’s Den, didn’t seem so ludicrous to Ginger.

  The tall, broad-shouldered Professor appeared again with the latest student he had stolen from the rest. His face was as stony as always, yet also handsome. His ash blonde locks might have been stoic, lazy snakes that continuously fed his visage with eternal indifference.

  “Ginger. Come along,” the Professor said with a piercing green stare at the halfling. He then turned sharply and stalked away. Ginger followed after him, racing as quickly as his heart was.

  Professor Mara’s office was in the Forge, a floor above where the First Years had their lessons in Equipped Armament Creation and Usage. All the First Years knew this, and earlier, they had attempted to go directly to the instructor’s only to find themselves pressed threatening by his oppressive Kardia midway up the stairs. That had been a clear sign for them to abandon their brazen mission.

  Climbing up the same stairs again, Ginger couldn’t help but wonder what Professor Mara’s deal was. Why was he so strict and sour? Was that just his style? It must have been. He had committed to the act religiously since Ginger had met him that day outside the school walls.

  “I hear you are particularly gifted in manipulating Mana Essence,” he said in a voice devoid of positivity.

  Ginger felt his throat turn into a desert.

  “It…it seems so,” he said.

  Professor Mara hummed.

  “I hope that serves you very well in your studies… for my Course. Rather, it better,” he said. That might have been a threat.

  Qin steel weapons could be augmented using both Kardia and Mana Essence. There was a clear disparity between the potency provided by each of these essences, but a skilled Sorcery could make it look as though there wasn’t a difference at all, even when matched against an Affixer.

  Below Ginger’s displeasure at hearing the threat, he begrudgingly saw Professor Mara’s point. In a way, the instructor had high hopes for him.

  As they entered his office, which looked very much like Professor Lyall’s, if a little neater, Professor Mara procured a form that he promptly placed his signature on. He then handed it to Ginger.

  “I’m sure you know Hunts aren’t exercises entirely detached from school Courses. Give this to whom it may concern in your Hunting Limb. They will appraise your performance with your… dagger during the Hunt, express their sentiments on the spaces I’ve outlined, and sign,” he said. “Bring the form to me intact when you return.”

  Ginger took the form hesitantly and nodded with a crooked smile.

  The rest went smoother than he had imagined. The only snag was that Professor Mara gave him his dagger… in a scarlet box sealed with a ribbon that had hints of Kardia.

  “To ensure that you don’t murder your fellow dragonlings with it at your dorms, you’ll only get access to your weapon after you have left the school grounds,” the handsome Professor had said.

  It was reasonable, but Ginger had wished the Professor had worded it differently.

  After tucking the scarlet box in his sling back and leaving the Forge, Ginger met up with Reiss on the way to Professor Edelman’s class.

  The dwarfish dragonling couldn’t help but laugh at Ginger’s expression.

  “Was it that bad?” he asked with a grin.

  “Not really, but… it’s Professor Mara.” Ginger had no other way of expressing how he felt.

  After enduring Reiss’ cackling for longer than he would have liked, Ginger inquired about Caron’s whereabouts.

  Reiss instantly turned somber.

  “I told her she’d get in trouble for hitting a classmate. Professor Lyall called her to her office,” he said.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Oh.”

  Ginger had expected that outcome too, of course. It stung though, since Caron had only done what she did for his sake (even though he didn’t ask her to). But on the bright side, Caron’s aggression deterred any more insensitive comments… to Ginger’s face.

  The plump dragonling was sure Caron wouldn’t get into too much trouble, though, it wasn’t out of the question for her to be delivered into Madam Agathe’s hands for a punishment.

  Ginger continued to lament Caron’s fate even in Professor Edelman’s class. The straight-backed, aloof Professor began class with another stern line spoken by some obscure fossil of a dragon long ago.

  …And then he finally delivered on the information all the dragonlings had been waiting for all Stride.

  “Revenant Relics aren’t always stores for great treasures. Of course, most of the time, a powerful relic or two can be found within them. As you can imagine, after slaying the Condemned that leads you to said Revenant Relics, finding an artefact that allows you to, say, warp from Proin to Merccina in an instant would be a delightful reward. It’s said that Principal Phoenix’s renowned set of one-of-a-kind artefacts – powerful heirlooms passed down to her – were taken from a Revenant Relic that had been guarded by a powerful Condemned with a Scarlet Cast. The creature would not part with the artefacts easily. Some say its strength was equal to that of the Vermillion Dragon, but of course, the Avecsalot Family would find such a notion blasphemous,” Professor Edelman said and chuckled.

  Ginger felt Reiss poke him with an elbow. The small dragon was furiously taking notes. He had about as much of a fascination with Principal Phoenix as Ginger did.

  ‘A set of artefacts, huh?’ the plump dragonling thought.

  Professor Edelman continued, speaking over the chorus of excited First Years.

  “Ahem. I will go in-depth into some of the treasures that have been recovered from Revenant Relics another time. But as I said, that is not all you will find within them, nor is it the most valuable thing you can find in such ruins. History is every bit as important to dragons as power. And where power is concerned, all manner of older dragons will tell you that Ravi has a history that oozes with nectary promise.”

  “The great mountain, Burmrag from which all Cinder-born – Qin Asha, Olarmanders, Blighted and Condemned – were formed is nowadays labeled a Modern Wonder by philosophers and historians in their self-important research publications. In a way, they are right. There are things that far predate Burmrag. Things older than the times we call ancient – both living and non-living.”

  “There are creatures who wandered Ravi long, long before the dragons. They were more intelligent than us, stronger, fiercer. Some say their fangs in the ugly morning would make the Five Ancient Elders cower, but that’s up for debate. These creatures are the reason the wonders of Ravi are yet to be wholly known.”

  Caron came in just when Professor Edelman once again left the students of First Blue grumbling from yet another cliffhanger.

  She hurried to Reiss and Ginger before they could leave the classroom.

  The two boys were surprised she didn’t look dejected. Glimmers of hope had begun to light up in their eyes when…

  “No, I did get a punishment and a credit on my Points. Madam Agathe is having me help her create plaques with all the school rules written on them. She says it will help hammer into my head the sort of behavior expected of a pretty young dragonling,” Caron said with a terrifying yawn.

  “She should have sent you to the Pine,” Reiss hissed indignantly. Caron must not have heard him though.

  “Why don’t you look… you know… bothered?” Ginger asked.

  “Why should I? It’s a lighter punishment than I expected, and I’ll only be serving it in the evenings during the Breather. I’m happy it didn’t steal away much of the time I hoped to spend with Midget while you’re gone.”

  Reiss groaned.

  Ginger laughed.

  On the way to another class, Caron had Reiss retell what they had learned in Professor Edelman’s class – the interesting bits at least.

  As he did – however reluctantly, and after a passionate “Good grief!” – Ginger got lost in his own thoughts; he had much to consider from what Professor Edelman had told.

  The aloof Professor had hinted at the fact that Ravi was really old and had many rulers before the dragons, but the fact that these mysterious olden beings were connected to the Revenant Relics had an impact on the halfling.

  And where Principal Phoenix was concerned, Ginger found himself thinking about the bit of lore Ira had told him and his friends: that the Ebony Dragon, Draggard-Phoenix, had been plotted against by the other Ancient Elders led by the Vermillion Dragon.

  A thought of his strayed to the fact that if there was such an incident that truly occurred long ago, and it was well-known by the Flame Seeker Families – as evidenced by Vassilis’ reaction days ago…

  Was it fuelled by the fact that the Draggard-Phoenix Family had these powerful artefacts that they passed down as heirlooms?

  Ginger remembered hearing some of his seniors whispering something about Principal Phoenix being under the constant suspicion of being a dreadful disaster like her ancestor.

  The fact that she was apparently one of the scariest dragons to ever exist likely didn’t help her image with those weaker than and afraid of her.

  ‘I suppose the Avecsalot could have heirlooms of their own, but the principal’s sound… more well-known at least. That means something for sure. They must be more powerful than others. I bet the Avecsalot Family isn’t really happy about that in particular,’ Ginger thought.

  He remembered how Ira had bitten back against Vassilis’ threat using Principal Phoenix’s name. That seemed to have less to do with the fact that she was a principal and more to do with her standing… and of course, her power.

  Another dark thought reared its head and he gulped.

  ‘If Principal Phoenix is really some really powerful dragon that many people compare to Draggard-Phoenix… could the Avecsalot Family still be holding the Perfect Execution on hand, just in case… or for another purpose?’

  Was that the reason why Vassilis was so furious when he found out that Ginger knew about the deadly Pieyro?

  “Ginger?” Reiss said to him, rescuing him from the cesspool of dark theories. “Are you alright?”

  Caron was eyeing him suspiciously too.

  “Y-yeah. I was just thinking about what Professor Edelman said as well,” Ginger didn’t want to entertain the what-ifs any longer, so he didn’t share the entirety of his concerns.

  In fact, he didn’t want any more concerns or distractions. He had a Hunt coming up and he wanted as little tangential stresses as possible.

  When the Breather finally came, Ginger was pleased to find that he was well-equipped to deal with it. Other than a few jabs from Fillys and her company, and even fewer aggressive stare-downs with Vassilis, nothing else disturbed his resolve for what was coming.

  He was expectant and hopeful and Fai, Shan, and Long met him with the same energy.

  Ginger’s first Hunt was going to be…