Page 142 of Heart of the High King
“Brogan should’ve guessed,” Dre’Kariston told his twin’s mate. “You were his best friend and the person closest to him for the longest.”
“I’m not a damn mind reader,” Brogan snapped with a glare for Aleksander.
“Stop giving him that look; he can keep any secret he wants.”
On or around the deck area, arguing ensued about what mysteries might be lurking in Aleksander’s past and everyone else’s, but he didn’t participate in the conversation. Kissing Rafe’s head, Aleksander mourned the fact that he was going to have to move soon so they could attend a Sorcery D’Vaire meeting, when Pyxlevir came over.
“I can’t wait to have another stuffed dragon to keep Alek company,” Pyxlevir said. The kid had a collection of pals he took with him nearly everywhere he went, including one in Aleksander’s scales. “Once you get your dragonskin, I’m going to name him after you. I decided he’s going to be Raf.”
“If I manage to get my beast back, I’ll make sure you get first dibs on my shedded skin, okay?” Rafe replied.
Pyxlevir grinned. “Thanks, Rafe.”
Aleksander’s other half got up to give the small elf a hug and Aleksander stood, as did the other members of their group that met every Saturday, and headed for the building where their boardroom and library was housed. Rafe fell into step behind him, and they went inside and up the three flights of stairs. Once in the large space, it didn’t take much time for people to get seated, and the High Kings were no exception.
Pulling his chair a little closer to the table and Rafe, Aleksander started the meeting. “This is our first sit-down since you guys healed Rafe, so I wanted to start this afternoon by thanking you. He and I have this second chance because of your hard work.”
“Could I just say something?” Rafe asked.
“Mr. President, you and Aleksander are in charge,” Renny reminded him gently. “You can talk whenever you want.”
“Okay, well, I just wanted to add to what Sander said. I don’t think it was any secret that I didn’t want anything to do with healing. It wasn’t that I thought you guys weren’t incredible, I was really fucked up, and I didn’t think I’d be able to handle magic to fix any damn thing. I was convinced that I would have to wait to be rebirthed by Fate for my chance to be with Sander. Thanks to you guys, neither one of us has to wait. I’ll be indebted to you for eternity. I get to be with Sander because of your hard work so, yeah, there’s no way I can adequately show my gratitude.”
“Honey, Fate gave you Aleksander along with the power in this room. You owe us nothing,” Saura told him. “We were so happy that we could help you. Personally, I was honored that you trusted us enough to take you into an operating room and try. And while I have the opportunity, I have to say, you two look damn good together.”
“My only complaint is that I have a house full of sentinels bitching because they believed at some point they were going to get a wolf,” Alaric drawled. “There were fights over who would get to be with Mortis most.”
“And before anyone asks, I’m not filling the whole condo with animals despite the number of times it’s been suggested. Grymmie has a dog. There’s a pet in the house they can love on whenever the mood hits; they don’t need everything they see,” Chander griped. “For Fate’s sake, for grown men they act like children whining about things they can’t have.”
“I’d offer to give them Mortis, but I’m mean, and I plan on keeping him with me,” Rafe responded.
“If I hadn’t tied him to your soul, those idiots would probably try to coerce him away from you since their honor prevents them from outright stealing,” Chander complained. “But let’s not worry about spoiled sentinels. We’ve got you healed, which is a great relief. Let’s discuss our next projects.”
“Rafe, what do you consider the more important of the two?” Aleksander asked.
“I don’t even know what the two are.”
“Our current goals include doing what we can to assist you in reuniting with your dragon and to come up with either a treatment or cure for magic intolerance.”
Rafe’s cheeks went bright red. “Um…I’m working with Jeremiah. He calls me every day and while I don’t feel my dragon yet, I’m doing the relaxation stuff. So maybe we just focus on the intolerance? I mean, that could help other people too, right?”
“Absolutely, I already market things through my brother’s company, and Sorcery D’Vaire should have the chance to do the same,” Grigori said. His older sibling ran a conglomerate called Umpyr that handled various aspects of business, including the manufacturing of the solutions Grigori created in his lab.
“All right, any clue how to get started?” Aleksander asked.
“Well, let’s start with Rafe’s intolerance. We now have samples of his blood and have been using the simulators to definitively test how he reacts to different magic,” Vadimas commented. “He’s most sensitive to druidic magic for reasons not yet understood. Necromantic spells have little impact on his system, which may be because his soul is tied to Mortis. When it comes to warlock and wizard, the reaction is somewhere in between druidic and necromantic, depending on who is casting. The dark sorcerers had more success than their light or even neutral counterparts. And as we already know, his reaction was smaller to darkfallen, and I can safely tell you that without Saura and T’Eirick, we might not have figured out a winning strategy to cure him in a timely enough manner to save him.”
“We also did tests with the Cwylld stones versus if we’d allowed him to recuperate without them, and it would’ve taken him ten times as long to lose the swelling if Cadlyr hadn’t so kindly allowed us to use them,” Severin added.
“Over the past two centuries, since shifters joined the Council, people have speculated that we’re actually magickind. That the very act of going from man to beast is proof of sorcery, whether it be at a cellular or soul level. If that’s true, is there a long-term impact of stunting any chance Rafe has of regaining his beast by repeatedly exposing him to the Cwylld stones?” Mac asked.
“Damn, we should’ve taken a sample of Aleksander’s blood before and after he was exposed to the stones,” Delaney groused.
“There’s no reason we can’t shave off some dust and put it right in a sample of his blood now. We can keep it in a copper box and feed the data into the simulator. That way we can prove or disprove the theory that magic is involved or if shifters are correct in referring to it as a simple gift from Fate,” Vadimas stated. “I’m sure you won’t mind, Aleksander? We can do the same with a sample from every shifter in the family.”
“Especially Aris and the other centaurs,” Mac responded. “Unlike dragons, they’re immortal. I’d think they would have a greater potential for being magical in any respect.”
“Good point,” Idris told his mate.
“Give me some dust. I want to experiment with some stuff,” Killian requested.
“I’d like some too,” Grigori said. “I think I’m going to start by coming up with a synthetic version. There aren’t that many to go around, and we may need a larger source.”
“If you think that’s possible, perhaps we start there instead of grinding up all of Cadlyr’s legacy,” Chander remarked.
“Meanwhile, the rest of us need to brainstorm what other avenues exist beyond the Cwylld stones or ideas of how we can greater utilize the synthetic version. If we want to mass-produce this, we’re definitely going to need that,” Dra’Kaedan supplied.
“Is this a potion, spell, plant or what that we’re going to use?” Dravyn asked.
“Good question, I guess we’ll find out,” T’Eirick responded.
