A Dragon Born by Jordan Baker

was somewhat foolish. I believe I told you that at the time," Stavros reminded him.
    "Yes, you did," Zachary replied. "It matters not. I slept until I had recovered. He will sleep until he recovers. There is nothing wrong with him."
    "That is something we will discover if he wakes."
    Zachary frowned. Over the past few days, he had spent most of his time either in the room or down at the tavern. His own room had barely been used since he could not sleep at all. It was useless for him to hover around constantly so he had tried to relax by drinking more of the pirates' sweetwater, the strong drink favored by the people of the sea, but whatever weak effects it previously had on his mage's constitution were now barely noticeable as his tense energy burned it away faster than he could consume it.
    The girl, Carly, had taken to sleeping in the room as well and lay asleep on a bedroll on the floor. Apparently she had history of some kind with the pirates of Meer Island and they were at odds over something, The last time she had ventured down to the tavern for any length of time, a fight had broken out between her and some of the pirates who were part of Lanos-Meer's contingent and Zachary had been forced to intervene. While they had previously ignored him, now that they knew of his power, the pirates gave him a wide berth, not wanting to test him.
    Since they had ample time to talk, and once their tempers had cooled, Stavros had filled Zachary in on the story of how Aaron ended up living in hiding with his brother, Tarnath. As angry as Zachary was about having missed out on the childhood of his son, he understood the reason Stavros had done what he had, and he grudgingly admitted that the grey-cloaked mage had, in fact, attempted to speak with him, at real risk to his own life. Zachary had not been a reasonable man to deal with after the death of the woman he loved and, in his grief, did some terrible things before he finally retreated from the world, disappearing almost entirely.
    Only for the past few years had he started to visit places where people lived and, even then, he kept to out of the way places like Meer Island, populated by thieves and brigands, the sort of folks whose accidental incineration by an angry mage might be considered by some an improvement to the world. Not that Zachary had killed anyone, but he had come close a few times, when crossed by those who saw his unkempt, greasy appearance and smelling of sweetwater and mistakenly thought him to be little more than a common drunk and tried to take advantage, although, the mage now realized that it was exactly what he had become.
    After Stavros had completed removing the ward from Aaron's power, Zachary had cleaned himself up, bathed, trimmed his facial hair back to its former shape and even cropped his long hair back up above his shoulders. He had even bought new clothes, trading the stained and threadbare tunic and tan leather pants he had worn for a fine outfit of black and gold, put together by a talented clothier in town, who, despite having a flair for the dramatic, had done a decent job. At the very least, Zachary wanted to look somewhat respectable when his son awoke, even if he himself might not deserve much respect, though he remained nonetheless, hopeful.
    Carly stirred from her bedroll, opening her eyes and rubbing the sleep from them. Stavros was where he had been when she had fallen asleep, still sitting in the chair next to Aaron's bed. She looked up and saw Zachary leaning against the wall, dressed in his new clothes and she quickly straightened herself and brushed the tangle of hair out of her face as she stood. She was about to comment on the mage's much improved appearance when she felt a strange and familiar sensation.
    "Someone is here," Carly said, although she did not know why or how she knew such a thing.
    Zachary and Stavros both gave her questioning looks then a moment later the air in the room crackled with power as they gathered their