Chapter 2 for anyone actually reading.
Chapter 2
For a moment, Mai didn't believe what she had heard, but disbelief quickly morphed into something between anger and relief.
Dresden was a Morningway and nothing good had ever come of that family. To have him outside the Council's control was… disturbing. But the young Drake hadn't chosen one of the Wardens, hadn't chosen Morgan. For that… relief, if only a little.
Already it had been agreed, so to protest now would be a breach of contract, but a question…
"Why?"
Silvery-blue met Mai's own near-black, the knowing gaze feeling as though it burned down to her very soul. No drake could match a Silver's stare—it was bred into them to respect the holders of Balance. Even dark-drake would offer no harm to the One.
"I am young, still. I wish to learn of the world, her ways and her creatures. To do so, I would live in her, not rule her living from a distance. And this Harry Dresden… he is in the world, not watching from afar."
Mai dipped her head a bit in deferance to the Silver's point. "I will not interfere."
Dog ears pressed forward somewhat agressively and the disguised dragon gave a faint flash of fang. "I would not allow it."
Mai silently conceded the point.
xxxx
Bob was looking over some photos on the desk when a shape outside the plastic-covered window caught his attention. It hovered for a moment, seeminly trying to decide whether or not to knock, before raising a hand and rapping sharply against the wood of the doorframe.
"Come in," Bob called, hoping that no one would question his not actively opening the door.
On the up-side of being an object-bound spirit, he couldn't actually invite something in. If it was a magical creature with hostile intentions, Bob's invitations would not dismiss the wards. So he felt relatively safe in calling through the mostly opaque plastic covering where the glass should have been.
And he was summarily shocked.
The door pulled open and a large silver dog trotted in, only to be followed by Ancient Mai.
Mai opened her mouth, glanced at the dog as it gave her a sharp glare, and almost politely asked "Is Dresden in?"
Despite the fact that gravity had no hold on him, Bob's jaw dropped open before he managed to pull himself together. "Not at the moment, Lady Mai. He should be back in a few more minutes." If she was going to be polite, so was he.
"I see. Then I shall wait."
Bob couldn't restrain his curiousity—though he had not imagined Mai as a 'pet person', if she were to have an animal familiar, it would have to be as extrodinary as the shining dog. Silver-blue eyes were bright with intelligence as it glanced his way and the brindling along its back formed a vague steel-gray outline of wings against fur the shade of Sterling. "Is the dog yours, Lady Mai?"
Mai almost smiled, "No… Silver is here for Dresden."
Bob blinked. A gift? … That was one question he wasn't sure he should ask, and the dog's laughing gaze said she knew what he was thinking and it pleased her. He couldn't bring himself to think of the beautiful animal as 'male' and though 'female' didn't seem quite right either, it was closer than the other.
Before Bob had to come up with words to fill the amused silence, the door pushed open.
"I got the glass for the broken windows and—Hello, Mai."
xxxx
Harry Dresden was about what the Silver had expected and though the instant wariness of Ancient Mai was slightly troubling, it was not entirely unexpected. One of Mai's age grew jaded, and she did not believe in people as those younger might.
No, this young wizard was not evil. Gray, perhaps, but he was not of the Black, though he had touched it.
"Hello, Dresden," Ancient Mai replied to his greeting, sounding almost friendly, for her.
He tilted his head and glanced over at the 'dog'. "Yours?"
"No. You are… hers." 'Its' sounded too close to disrespectful, even if it was technically true.
"Mine?" the sheer incredulity in that comment was too much.
Mai let out a short bark of laughter, "You are hers, Dresden. Goodbye." Mai folded into a trick of 'not there' at the Silver's slight nod and amused canine grin, then left.
Meanwhile, Harry Dresden was blinking at the empty place where Mai had been in complete shock.
He turned to Bob. "Mine?" he repeated weakly.
The disguised Drake gave a soft bark.
"Um… hi, girl," Dresden dropped to one knee and held out a hand, "What's your name?"
As 'she' moved forward to sniff the outstreched fingers, the Silver felt a glimmer of satisfaction. He was passing the first test—how he treated animals.
"Mai called her 'Silver'," Bob supplied helpfully, even as Dresded began to scratch behind small, triangular ears.
"Appropriate," Dresden murmured, smiling a bit.
The Silver gave a cursory lick to the hand before moving on to the second part of the test. How would he deal with an unknown ability?
'She' trotted towards Hrothbert, sniffing at his spirit-essence, smelling old darkness and a newer light. Love, as pure an clean as any she had yet seen, untainted by the shadows that linked around it. And hatred—he had felt both, though not for the same person.
Then she reared up on her hind legs and licked him full in the face, knocking him over with her weight.
While even 'she' could not harm him, with sufficient concentration and Will, she could touch him, just like any other spirit.
"Bob!" and Dresden pulled her off of his skull-bound slave, showing he also cared for that other as a friend. Another point in his favor. "Are you all right? Bob!"
Bob blinked up at his impromptu rescuer, "I'm fine, but Harry… I felt that."
Dresden gaped for moment as he considered what to say and finally settled on "Mai gave me a magic dog?"
"It would appear so," Bob stood up, hiding how very good it had felt to feel, if only the breif touch of some kind of magical canine.
"Well, how am I supposed to know how to take care of her? What if I feed her the wrong thing and she gets sick? Could I take her to the vet, or would that just make things worse?"
"Harry, one thing at a time. Find out what kind of dog she is, then care for her from there."
The Silver nodded slightly. Merely concern in how to care for, no fear. Good. Now for the last.
"I am an Akita, at the moment. I eat bear meat." It wasn't a lie—she had and would eat bear meat. But she wouldn't insist on it.
"Bear meat? How am I supposed to get bear meat?" Then it registed just who had spoken.
"You can talk?"