Nettle
We staggered out of Her Majesty's Theatre still dazzled after the show. After two months in London I was starting to understand Isaac. Plays were magic, they touched on feelings and truths that otherwise could not be reached without resistance.
Kain was especially fond of musicals and we indulged him. Since admissions to all noteworthy schools closed in January, we could just as well have fun.
We went to the closest Carluccio's to discuss the play over some tapas and wine. My whole life up until now seemed to not make sense. There was so much fun and beauty and pleasure to have in this life. Why nobody has ever taught me about this? Talon was all about danger, striving and hassle. I hoped that Ember will soon put an end to that.
"...also what a horrible waste to yield this city to the Order of St George." Kain stated and snickered. "I'm sure the sordid bastards would not be able to find fun, if it jumped out of the bushes and kicked them in their asses." He mocked. I thought it strange, that the Elder Wyrm, otherwise obsessed with domination and power, would have yielded this city and the whole ancient continent to the Order. It just did not make sense, she has fled Europe more than four hundred years ago. There was nothing humans could do against a full grown adult dragon back then, right? I let the thought slip because it made me strangely uneasy.
"So now what?" Said Mist, who surprisingly turned out to be quite a party girl. She basically danced till the dawn, meditated in the morning then slept until noon and was ready to party again. "What would you like to do?" Kain has learned the rutine after first two arguments. He chose the play, I chose the food and Mist chose clubs. "I have read about this place on East End that should be really good. This blogger loves it, the music, atmosphere and people should be very... inspiring." She said. I rolled my eyes, why did it have to be so far away?
The night was great. We took a huge way around, because I remembered staggering past Trafalgar Square and the British Museum that are nowhere near the route. But we've made it, and even did not have to show our IDs, we just made the bouncers think about something else when they let us pass. Why did Talon not use this ability to keep dragons safe? No matter. We were dancing all three of us, feeling the music weave with our magic and creating something completely new. Something larger than anything I have ever experienced. I could see the music flowing through the air, and time, I remembered the people who first invented these harmonies and each and every person that have ever heard the beat. I could feel the joy, the sorrow, the grief, the despair, desire, jealousy, fun, loss and longing. In the melody in our moves and all around. It connected me to other times, let me see the past and sense the future. If only I reached out my hand, I could just step right through the music and into another world.
Mist's hand clasped mine. "Stop it Nettle!" She shouted over the loud music smiling for anyone who could watch us. She dragged me off the floor to a free corner of a table. A couple making out at the other side of the table paid us little attention.
"What are you doing?" She asked me. Kain followed with us but there were no more chairs. "I get us refreshments." He shouted and started to dance his way to the bar at the opposite wall.
"What am I doing?" I asked dazzled.
"You were doing something! I could feel it!" She looked serious. Then she stepped on the dance floor and retrieved Kain. "Time for a walk." She stated, so we walked... again.
"What was that about Nettle?" She asked me once we were out of the club. "I don't know." I said truthfully. "It was the music..."
Mistle looked scared. "I felt the pull, as if something was pulling me in." She said. "I felt some sucking too." Kain added.
"That sucks man." A man in sweat pants and a hoodie blocked our path. "Now I want your wallets and phones." He stated as two more guys stepped out of the gully on our left. I was too stunned to understand what was going on, but Mist stepped protectively in front of us just to be pushed behind by Kain. "I have a better idea. Now you go to where you came from, and I let you." He said completely transformed. Every inch of his height was apparent and his voice and posture spoke of authority, confidence and threat. The three dudes either thought that being in a company of two girls made him vulnerable, or were stupid because the main guy just punched Kain in the jaw.
Only that his punch never met its mark, as Kain casually turned stepping out of the trajectory of the man's fist and landed his own punch in guys stomach, tripping him with a step almost too quick for me to see. The other guy tried to intervene, but quickly ended up sitting on the pavement and holding his bleeding nose. The third guy backed away lifting his hands. "I don't want any trouble." He said slowly. "Then don't make any." Was Kain's answer as he motioned us to pass the two guys who were staggering to their feet, all the while holding himself between us and them. We quickly left the scene and wandered in silence for a while.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Mist asked. "I was quite advanced in my Gila training before I left Talon." He answered casually. "This is why I left. I didn't feel like being a bodyguard my entire immortal life. There is so much more than violence to life. I wanted to experience that too." He added on his own accord.
"What about the magic then?" Mist asked again. "It seems that since Lightningbird taught us basics it's growing inside me. I can feel and see things, and Nettle almost opened some kind of passage in the middle of a crowded dance floor!"
Kain seemed to think before he spoke. "We should resume our quest for knowledge. We've come here to learn more about dragons, we should use some time to study them."
"Tomorrow. " I yawned, it was very late and all the excitement made me tired and hungry.
The sun was reflecting on the still water in the dock by which we were having our brunch. It was noon, we decided to get more disciplined and got up earlier.
Mist was typing frantically on her phone frowning. Very unlike her, she was usually poised and elegant. Earlier she was fidgeting during our mind stilling exercises, something was eating her.
"Your omlet is completely cold Mist, should I order you a new one?" Kain asked sweetly, but she only frowned more and typed even faster. I took a sip of my tea and devoured another pancake with sirup and berries. Seriously this food was fantastic. I didn't know what Riley thought giving us each a credit card that apparently had no limit. He only contacted Kain once, shortly after the meeting between Talon and the Order. He told him, that we might stay here as long as we wished or until he recalled us, so we did.
Mist finally put her phone down. "We have a meeting in Natural History Museum." She announced. "With Sharon Wise, a professor of geomythology and a known dragon expert." She then started eating her omlet as if nothing was amiss.
Kain winced. "Mist love, don't eat it. Let's order you a new one." She swallowed and shook her head. "No time, we are supposed to meet with her there in an hour."
"A meeting" turned out to be a book tour. Professor Wise, a plump American woman signed books and answered questions from mostly children, for whom her book was clearly intended. We waited patiently in line behind one other unaccompanied adult, alluring woman of fourty with long dark hair flowing down to her waist. She was dressed in an expensive looking purple dress with a short black cardigan knitted from yarn as thick as my little finger. She looked beautiful and high fashion but also strangely out of place in a queue of small children and their parents.
Finally it was our turn. Mist stepped forward and gave her our names and continued with admitting fascination with dragons and asking about chances to meet one in real life.
With a kind smile professor answered that although her research points towards impossibility of such encounter, there is no way to completely rule it out and that Mist should never let anyone tell her, that her dresms are impossible to achieve.
We stepped to the side making place to a girl half out height who clutched the book to her chest like a great treasure.
We hang a bit listening to people talking about a panel earlier on, that we've missed. These young humans were fascinated by dragons and many professed their love for them. It almost felt a pity they were unaware there were three dragons in the middle of them. I wondered if they really would hate and fear us, or was that Talon's indoctrination to ensure our loyalty to the organization.
Finally professor Wise was finished and this time it was Kain, who approached her. He's leafed through the book as we waited and now put on an impressive show of devotion and interest and asked the good professor about most interesting dragon stories and places where these originated. Professor Wise was clearly dazzled enough to try to impress Kain back and pointed us to some of her works, that he duly noted, but she was on a schedule and soon excused herself after telling him how happy she was to inspire us.
The woman from the queue approached Kain and said. "Sharon is good but academia puts a band on one's geek. I have a friend, who knows everything there is worth knowing about dragons. He loves to talk about it." She handed him a card and left with a wink.
Mist insisted that we left right away, so we took a cab to a cosy coffee shop, where we got delicious sandwiches with chicken and mozzarella and yoghurt smoothies.
We sat down and Kain professed the card. It read "Felix Ignius - finder of lost things" followed by an email address.
Kain's mouth twitched with badly hidden amusement. "Lucky fire - seriously?" He snorted. "If he isn't a dragon he clearly wants everyone to think, that he is."
Mist snatched the card. "Can't you see how dangerous this is?" She asked exasperated. "Someone has noticed us. This is a trap. We must contact Riley."
I rolled my eyes. "Come on! We have come here to find knowledge of dragons, this... person knows something. We should at least give it a shot." I said. "We can send them an email and agree to meet somewhere public, to get a better feel the situation. Come on Mist aren't you a full fledged basilisk? This should be nothing for you." I teased her.