My mind raced as I stared at it. If mages living in both the Age of Pools and Age of Sunder had been able to form this connection – at least enough for Ketsalkuet's descendants to benefit from it – then it seemed likely the bloodline spellcraft ritual would likewise work.

But what exactly was a dragon mage? What did it do? How did it do it? I kept reading, pressing on, taking notes in my own grimoire. I started skimming along Ketsalkuet's entries, looking for the block of text.

The next one I encountered described how, due to Ketsalkuet's gifts, the shattering of the origin was no longer needed. At the phrase 'shattering of the origin', my eyes widened, and I went back, tracing over the lines of text and muttering them out loud.

"In mine studies, I have come to the conclusion that by subsuming the full might of mine flaming roots into mine heart magic, I can reforge my roots as pieces of mine heart magic. I shall keep the strength of mine claw, the might of mine breath, and mine aura of fear, but nay to the needs of the rest. The might of mine heart magic has grown to surpass mine flaming roots, and no more shall I suffer weakness."

It seemed like he'd planned to subsume his bloodline into his ether pool, then. Was that what a dragon mage was? I skipped over the rest of his bluster, and him describing the eventual submission the people of the heart until I found another passage on magic .

"Failure! Agonies! Hatreds! Mine attempts hath failed, so I tooke tea from the witch who commands the people of the heart. Together we hath divined the reason – my burning roots are not fully mine own. The progenitor of mine roots and those of mine mother and father and kin decreed our greate gifte was in the reshaping of flesh. Fie on that! I shall break mine connection to my origin, and the children of mine – and the witch, should my wooing go well – shall haft the gifte of the heart magic's fire rune, so that they might do the same as I in time."

This… this was what had happened to me. I'd rejected the draconic gift of my mother, which had seemingly been a part of her burgeoning divinity. It was why there was no need for the dragons of Ketsalkuetspalaltepetl to shatter their connection to their origin in order to become dragon mages: as descendants of Ketsalkuet, their bloodline was already suited to merging together ether and magic. But how had Ketsalkuet rebuilt his bloodline? I pressed on, skimming for the pages until I found it.

Ketsalkuet, in his continual brand of research, had described shattering his origin by breaking the connection to his mother. It had slowed his abilities to shift – though, by my standards in the Age of Stars, only needing a minute to transform into any shape was still blisteringly fast – but had allowed him to finally merge the pools, though he had needed to sense divine power in order to begin to do it.

This was where the next note from the Ketsalkuetspalaltepetl royal archivist, or whoever had been leaving the blocky text notes in the margins came in. It speculated that Ketsalkuet had needed the divine power to manage the merge, despite no other member of the royal line needing it, because he was powerful enough that he was becoming a half-step divine, or whatever the equivalent from the Age of Pools had been. The notes went on and on, filling more space than the margins should have had, and it made me think that the author had to be bending space to fit so much text on the pages.

Most of what the text described was of great interest to archeologists, but not much to me – the awakening of magic in the Age of Sunder was far cruder than the methods of today. Sure, magic left over from before the Age of Stars had its advantages, but it wasn't universally better in every regard. But there was a pair of passages that caught my eye more than the others, and I focused on them.

"The merging of pools is the second step on the transformation into a dragon mage. Once your channel has been crafted, the dragon affinity magic in the bloodflame brazier should be able to cause them to flow together. While the venerable Ketsalkuet deconstructed his bloodline and reforged it as permanent constructs within his ether pool, wizardry of his era was far less limited than the modern world. It is recommended that the opposite is done, and the affinity of the royal is transformed into a log within the bonfire of magic."

For a half a second, I considered which I would do, if I was given the chance, but the answer came pretty much immediately: break down my bloodline and reform it within my ether pool. I was a mage first, and a dragon second. My magic might not be as flexible and powerful as the magic from the Age of Pools, but it was dramatically more flexible than the magic of the Age of Sunder. I flicked my eyes to the next passage.

"We further recommend advancing the magic of the ether pool in a specialized direction as much as possible prior to this step, as the combined pool of magic multiplies the best aspect from the elements of size, potency, and regeneration, while merely adding the lesser elements to their combined pool."

I felt my heart sink and soar at the same time.

It was possible that there was some sort of spell that would allow me to reconstruct my bloodline, now that I had freed it, but I was guessing that there wasn't. If there was, then it had been lost to the Erudite colleges, at the very least. I wasn't ruling out the possibility. I'd certainly try to look for it in library delves, if nothing else, but if the bloodline magic professor hadn't known of it, then it seemed likely that there wasn't anything.

No, it was most likely that I'd need to either track down someone with a dragon affinity, or else find something that had been imbued with the affinity from the Age of Sunder, like the bloodflame brazier, in order to activate it.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

At the same time…

If I did somehow manage to fold my ether pool into my bloodline, the way that Ketsalkuet once had, it would be an absolutely explosive leap in my power. When I ran dragonfire into my spells already, I was able to strike with a lot more power than any mage of my age or spell potency ought to be able to, but if I completed the second step of their ritual, then instead of it being a small pool of power that I could use to enhance a handful of spells, it would instead be every single spell I cast.

I started frantically flipping through the grimoire once again. Ketsalkuet described his marriage with the witch, but I didn't really care about all of that. He talked about conquering, and how his children were born imperfect, but better than he had been born – presumably with the channel in place, but without the fused pool that Ketsalkuet had discovered. Eventually, Ketsalkuet died, and his children took over the writing of the journal.

Where was the third step of the dragon mage ritual?

There.

The blocky writing took over the grimoire, and in its dry, factual statement, described a ritual that the bloodflame brazier could be used for to enhance the bloodline. For a moment, I thought it was simply the amplified bloodline spell that was already in my own grimoire, which massively boosted the density of the bloodline, but it wasn't.

"Through the plying of the dragon affinity magic within the bloodflame brazier, we have discovered something quite unusual. At birth, the bloodline is filled to the brim with Ketsalkuet's gift of fire shaping magic and the usual draconic bloodline powers. It does not stay this way. The spirit expands with time, and can accept new powers. As the third step of becoming a dragon mage, upon reaching the age of majority, the dragon mage should undergo the following ritual, and enhance their existing powers, gain a secondary breed, or develop a new power within their fire."

I had started to move on to the next paragraph when I spotted a note in the margins written in a new hand. A familiar hand. It was the hand of the woman who had been part of my creation, though I did not acknowledge her as mother.

"Most of this seems like historical drivel and junk, but this part seems useful. Maybe if I can break my own origin, I can use this ritual to both claim the freed space within my fire and create my own lineage? If so, there are multiple theories I could test with this. Rebuild the consumption from Ketsalkuet's era, perhaps? Or allow myself to lay massive clutches to field an army of lesser dragons? Need to find this brazier. I can feel I'm getting close…"

I felt my neck break out in cold sweat. Was this how my mother had started on the path to ascension? It had to be. I took a second and tried to center myself. There was no sense in breaking into a panic about this. I'd freed myself, after all, and this might answer some questions. If she had found the bloodflame brazier, that would explain how the Dreki Matriarch had created her own breed with seemingly no special trait, while letting her breed many times more children. It might even explain Gerhard's new form – I doubted anyone had been allowed to read this ancient journal in its entirety, but Gerhard may have been taken before the brazier and given this ritual to enhance himself by creating a new transformation that contained all of his fire and amplified it into his body.

It didn't explain everything – after all, she'd called me 'Kindling', and I still didn't know what she meant by that. It also created some problems for me. If any of the members of the family found the brazier, then they would be able to harvest the broken bloodline for a vast amount of new power. Even if they couldn't create their own line, having not managed to break their connection to their mother, there was entirely too much of a chance that they'd be able to flip the connection to become the matriarch.

My mind started to spiral off into different, terrifying thoughts about what could happen. Gerhard had used it once – was he planning to do it again? He was the oldest living member of the family that I was aware of, so if he used it, he'd have a good claim at becoming patriarch.

Was this the real reason he'd recruited us? What if someone else had managed to survive? What if the brazier had been destroyed? I wouldn't put it past the dead matriarch to put a kill switch in. Had her transformation to becoming an aberrant managed to transform her bloodline into the magic of the Age of Pools? After all, she'd been throwing around nets of flame, just like Ketsalkuet had once done. But at the same time, that didn't explain the taint. Did it? The Erudite had used old magic in the fight too, and he'd had a neck wrapped in dark bands. Had that been aberrant taint? Was the Erudite going to transform into an even more unkillable monster?

I shook my head and took long, deep breaths. Panicking about what might happen wasn't going to help anyone. I would tell Salem, Jackson, and Yushin about what I had learned. I'd make copies of the grimoire with the scribe's friend spell, and send them to the archeology department, the high king's historian, and anyone else who I thought might benefit.

I wouldn't show the text Gerhard – even if he was after the brazier, he might just think it was a way to improve the bloodline of an adult, and want it for that. I could live with that, and I'd have to find a subtle way to probe him for information.

Alright. I had something of a plan. What were my next steps?

Well, I needed to get my hands on the brazier, or else someone else with a dragon affinity. I'd ask around to see if anyone had something of the sort, but I doubted it for a pretty simple reason – if anyone easy to access had an affinity of that sort, one of my professors would have suggested I reach out to them as a way to improve my bloodline.

If I got my hands on the brazier, then I'd be able to complete the last two steps, though since I was going to rebuild my bloodline within my ether pool, I'd need to enhance my bloodline, then absorb it. Unless… If the spirit had expanded, then it was possible I could start over?

I had never fit in as a dragon. I lacked the instincts that Ketsalkuet, his line, and my family all seemed to have. Maybe if I merged my current bloodline power with my ether pool without first expanding it, could I then use the consume bloodline spell to grant myself a bloodline. It was possible that I could expand my bloodline, fuse it together, and then consume a new one, but I suspected it wouldn't be possible. This wasn't the Age of Pools, and I would bet that the magic would fail at best, and transform me into an aberrant at worst.

Alright. I had a plan, but I needed to speak to my friends. I glanced up and looked around, only to realize that the room was bustling – there were five other people in it, which for the library's reading room in summer, was absurdly busy. I checked the clock and realized it was well past noon. If I hurried, I might be able to catch everyone in the dining hall.

I walked over to the secret passage belonging to the members of the coven, and stepped inside.

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