Rose was sitting at a cold metal table at the heart of the once-dead garden. Color was slowly returning to it, vague hints of it appearing like someone took a paint brush to the gray. It no longer reeked of rot and decay, and it didn't feel anywhere near as unsettling as before. But the flowers were still dull and wilted, and the sky a miserable color of dull.
There was something off in the air. It hang about with trepidation, looming above Rose and the garden. It was an indescribable feeling, but one that could not be ignored, a blanket of haze, mystery, and oddity that wrapped itself tightly around her. Even if the garden itself didn't disturb Rose, something did.
Perhaps it was what sat in front of her, across the table.
Across from Rose was a smartly dressed man who was gray. The gray man smiled at Rose, pearly whites glittering from the white light above them.
"Hello, dearest."
Rose stared at the man in surprise, wondering why he seemed familiar. She thought she ought to be afraid. He was a stranger, after all, but all she felt was comfort… like finding an old security blanket.
"Hello. Who are you?"
"Family," he responded, still smiling. "I'm your uncle."
"I have an uncle?"
"Of course."
Rose's brow furrowed, not sensing a lie, but not believing him either. Dream or not, it struck her as something impossible. "Why are you here? Where is here?"
Her maybe-uncle gestured towards the garden. "We're inside your magical core, little battle maiden. I am here because I was put here about a decade ago. When your magic was sealed, I was sealed with it… but as your magic has returned, I am gaining a bit more of my freedom."
That made absolutely no sense. She didn't feel like he was lying, but who on earth would put someone inside her? Then again, why was her magic sealed in the first place? Did he know? Wait, uncle—
"You know my parents?" Rose blurted out, her heart leaping up her throat.
"I'm your mother's twin," he answered her, bemused by Rose's sudden excitement. "When we have more time, I would be delighted to tell you about her."
Rose couldn't resist smiling shyly at that, hope curling up like sun-soaked saplings in her belly. "Do you—do you know why my magic was sealed? Do you know who did it?"
Her uncle nodded. "Of course, but I think that story will have to be told another day. It's not a pleasant or short story, so I feel we'll have to postpone it until enough of your magic has been released. Then we can properly discuss it."
Rose frowned at that. "But—"
He smiled warmly at her. "I'm afraid we're already out of time, dearest. I do hope you have a pleasant school day."
Rose woke up.
She rubbed her eyes, the dream still fresh in her mind. It seemed real.
A part of her instinctively believed it to be real, in fact. For months, she had been dreaming about that garden, slowly traveling further into it with every dream. She always had felt eyes upon her in that garden, and now, she finally met a pair of them.
The young dragon pushed back the covers on her bed, swinging her legs out.
Assuming the dream was real, what did that mean for her? He said he was her uncle, that he knew her family. But he was sealed inside of her magical core? Was he the reason behind everything that happened to her? Did he intentionally seal himself along with her magic? Or did someone put him there? Why?
Why was her magic sealed? Why was he there? Where were her parents?
Rose immediately stopped that line of thinking. She had been trying hard not to think about her true parents since discovering she was a dragon and that dragons were banished.
If there were any dragons known to the Community outside of Desoul, odds were that she would have heard about them. The fact that she didn't know of any such dragon—and she did her best to research them—meant that her parents, if still alive, were likely on Desoul.
If that was the case, then there could only be one of two explanations as to why she was here and they were not.
One: they gave her up. Tossed her out into the human world after repressing her magic for reasons entirely unknown to the girl. Maybe they hoped the Community would accept her. Maybe they hoped the Community would kill her… regardless, they tossed her aside.
Or two: she was forcibly taken from them by the Community. This explanation would explain why she was allowed to attend a Community school, but it would not explain why she was kept at a human orphanage. If the Community had gone through the effort of taking her away from her parents for reasons unknown, then wouldn't they want to keep her monitored in a Community orphanage?
Or the third option was that they were dead, and no one else wanted her.
Regardless, they weren't encouraging thoughts. Rose had gone her entire life believing she was unwanted by her biological parents. Being magical didn't change that thought.
If she allowed herself to keep thinking about them, she would feel her heart break, and that was something she definitely wanted to avoid… so the fact that he (possibly) knew her parents would be pushed aside. She didn't want to think about the people who may or may not have wanted her.
Suppressing her magic, however, was something she was very curious about.
Only someone powerful would be able to do so, and from what she understood, there weren't a lot of benefits to doing it.
But maybe putting someone inside a magical core and then repressing that magic…?
Was it normal to lock someone away in a magical core and then seal that magic away? It sounded like imprisonment. But why?
Rose doubted she would be able to find answers in the library. Anything related to sealing was kept on higher levels, and only those in upper White Magic could access them. Maybe one of her kingmates might know?
No. Wait. Why was she even entertaining this line of thought? None of that could have been real, right? Why was she even considering—
You're a dragon going to school in a magical floating castle. Is it that much of a stretch that you have an uncle sealed inside you?
Rose didn't have an argument against such logic, but it still seemed incredibly ridiculous to her. She settled for simply asking some subtle questions and go from there. Havi almost always had an answer, so she'd ask Havi.
Rose got dressed and left her room in a hurry, grabbing her ball and thinking hard on how she had to find Havi. The smoke inside whirled around before pointing in the direction she needed to go. Rose took off in a light jog, catching up to Havi and Philip heading towards the cafeteria for breakfast.
"Havi!" Rose shouted, instantly going quiet as she neared them. "Um, Havi? Can I—I mean—may I please talk to you?"
Havi and Philip exchanged glances before Havi broke away and headed over to Rose. She smiled prettily and asked, "What's wrong, sweetie?"
"Is it—I mean, um," Rose stumbled over her words, uncertain how to phrase it. "So my magic was sealed, right?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think—um, maybe—more than my magic was sealed?" Rose squeaked out.
Havi blinked once. "Like what?"
"Like, um, an uncle?"
Havi's mouth dropped open and she stared at Rose in plain disbelief. "An uncle?"
Philip, having overheard the conversation, gave Rose a wide-eyed look. "You think you're a vessel?"
"What's a vessel?" Rose asked uneasily.
Philip scratched his neck as he thought. "I think I remember reading something about that. A few eras ago, it was common practice to seal dangerous criminals inside people."
"What?" Havi exclaimed. "Surely not."
"Yeah," Philip said slowly, squinting as he tried to recall what he read. "They'd seal them by sealing the magic of the—uh, the—uh—vessel, I think. The only way to really imprison a Nehebur is to put them in a non-magic area, yeah? Nowadays we have proper rehabilitation centers, but back then, everything was rich with magic."
"So… they have to be kept someplace with no magic. Why?"
"If we were to be cut off from magic, we would be significantly weaker," Havi explained. "It's—it's a complete loss of energy, really. If kept there for too long, some might even die."
"But I grew up without magic," Rose pointed out, confused.
"No, you didn't," Philip disagreed. "You lived on the Surface Realm, surrounded by humans. You… you do realize that magic comes from humans, right?"
"What?!"
"Most magic comes from humans," Havi clarified. "Every emotion a human feels generates a little bit of magic. Simply having your core repressed doesn't mean you were cut off from magic, but it did weaken you significantly. As more of your magic unlocks, you'll notice the difference."
"I can't believe magic comes from humans," Rose whispered. "Can they use magic, then?"
Philip and Havi shook their heads.
Philip said, "No. They can't keep it inside of them long enough to use it, at least not pure humans. You'll get the occasional witch, which is someone with a human and magical parent, or born with immunity to the Curtain."
Rose scratched her cheek as she thought about this new information. "So… in the older days, they would seal dangerous people inside of… a vessel and then repress the vessel's magic to cut them off from magic?"
"Yeah. It wouldn't kill them as long as the vessel was in a magically enriched environment, but it would definitely keep them weak."
"And no one does that now?"
"I would certainly hope not!" Havi exclaimed. "Such magic would have to be Yellow, which is definitely illegal. Not to mention that would probably count as kidnapping and wrongful imprisonment."
"W-well, what if someone was a vessel, but they didn't know? Is there—is there a way to tell?" Rose asked hesitantly, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
"You don't think—" Havi began, her brow furrowing as she looked at Rose with plain concern. "Philip?"
Philip scratched his cheek. "I mean I remember… have you ever felt something else that wasn't yours? Like… an extra arm? Or maybe an extra heartbeat? Heard voices?"
"I have a second heartbeat," Rose blurted out.
"Oh my," Havi said faintly before she grabbed Rose's arm and dragged her over to the couch in the dorm. She sat Rose down and kneeled in front of her before placing her ear over Rose's heart.
Philip hesitated before he mumbled, "I remember reading that vessels could sometimes feel closer to their… prisoner, wherever they were sealed. If, uh, your uncle was sealed inside of your heart, then you'd probably feel his heartbeat, too?"
"Oh my God," Havi said shrilly, pulling away from Rose's chest. "I hear three heartbeats!"
"What?!" Rose shrieked.
"What?!" Philip was immediately beside Rose and placing his ear on her back. "Oh my God."
"Ah!" Rose screamed. "I have two people sealed away? That's so creepy."
"Now, wait a moment," Havi said weakly. "Mature dragons might have two heartbeats, like some Neheburs. Mims have three hearts, after all. It's perfectly possible you—you only have the one uncle and he has two heartbeats. Or—or you have no uncles and simply have three heartbeats."
"We'll just ask Doctor Basileus next time we see him—"
"Maybe we should go now?" Havi suggested, her voice still coming out in squeaks. "On the off chance it's not—"
"Yeah, good call. C'mon, Rose," Philip said.
"Um. I—I can't feel my legs," Rose wheezed.
Philip promptly swept her up into his arms and started carrying her out of the dorm. If Rose wasn't so thoroughly terrified, she might have been mortified instead, but all she could do was think about how she had a literal person inside of her heart.
Can he hear and see everything the way I do? Can he hear my thoughts? The violation of privacy made her feel sick and her hands trembled. Uncle or not (if he even really was her uncle) the whole situation was utterly disturbing. The more Rose thought about it, the more upset she became. By the time they arrived at Doctor Basileus's office, she was nearly in tears.
This of course prompted a startled Doctor Basileus to usher Philip in to set on her on one of the beds and ask, "Whatever is wrong, Miss Rose?"
"My uncle is inside me!" Rose cried out.
"Um?" Doctor Basileus blinked. "I'm sorry, but—what?"
"She's a vessel, we think," Philip quickly explained. "She—she had a dream last night and we hear three heartbeats."
"Can dragons have multiple hearts?" Havi demanded, immediately taking a seat beside Rose and pulling the nearly hysterical girl into her arms.
Doctor Basileus blinked again, obviously thrown for a loop by the new information. He gave a small shake of his head to clear away his surprise and smiled charmingly. "Dragons can have up to five heartbeats. If Miss Rose is indeed a vessel and she has another dragon sealed inside of her, then it's perfectly normal to hear multiple heartbeats. That being said—ah, Miss Rose? Would you mind if I examined you?"
Rose shakily shook her head, trying hard to calm herself down. "C-can he hear m-my thoughts?"
Doctor Basileus cleared his throat and waved his right hand to shut the office door before he placed his left hand over Rose's back, above her heart. "Vessel rituals are extremely illegal and—consequently—limited information is provided about them. The basics remain available as they are an integral part of our history. They were extremely common during the Era of Man, and Crossroads. I say this now because what information I give you three, I expect you to keep to yourselves."
"Yes, sir," Havi and Philip promised. Rose only wobbly-nodded her head, shivering into Havi's side.
"Prisoners of the vessels have extremely limited access outside of their cells," Doctor Basileus stressed. "The only way your��� uncle… would be aware of your thoughts is if you openly shared them. He cannot see what you see, hear what you hear, or feel what you feel. He will only ever have access to his cell and what you allow him access to."
"Allow access? What, can she… interact with him?" Havi inquired hesitantly.
"From what I understand, yes," Doctor Basileus confirmed. "Such techniques would be difficult to perform, however, as it would require her to be able to manipulate her own magical core."
Relief fell through Rose at those reassurances. It was still deeply unsettling, but she felt much better that her thoughts would still remain her thoughts. An idea then occurred to her.
"But—but I've dreamed about him, I think. I mean, I definitely know I talked to him."
"You would not dream about him if you did not want to," he said firmly. "It is likely your magic recognizes him and has opened a pathway to his cell during your dreams. If he truly is your uncle, it would stand to reason he was with you as an egg and may have very well helped care for you. Dragon eggs take centuries to hatch, so your magic would have had plenty of time to get to know him."
"That's operating on the fact that he's her uncle," Philip observed. "How can we be sure?"
"I can say with absolute certainty he would not be able to interact with her at all if her magic did not want him to," Doctor Basileus assured them. "The fact that these interactions have only occurred in her dreams, when her subconscious has more access to her magic, stands to reason that he was likely present during her time as an egg. Dragons are only barely coherent as eggs, but are still aware enough prior to hatching to know exactly who is family and who is not."
"Wait," Havi whispered, her eyes widening as she gasped. "If he really is an uncle—or at least someone who cared for her as an egg—then it'd be illegal for him to be here! Dragons are still banished to Desoul."
"What if he's the reason Rose is here?" Philip questioned, folding his arms over his chest. "Maybe he fled from Desoul with Rose and… and when he got here—"
"Some cretin might have sealed him and repressed Rose's magic," Havi concluded. "But—but Yellow Magic hasn't been taught in over three hundred years. Even then, it was highly regulated. I can only think of a few people with the capability of not only repressing a dragon's magic, but turning her into a vessel."
"Your grandfather is a Yellow Mage, right? Maybe he would know?" Philip suggested.
"Yellow Mage?" Rose repeated, looking up at Havi.
"Yellow Magic wasn't always illegal," Havi explained gently. "My grandfather was taught Yellow Magic over a thousand years ago and became proficient enough at it to become a Yellow Mage. There are some like him, but all Yellow Mages are closely monitored by Unity. Since it's such a small group now, my grandfather knows all Yellow Mages, so he might be able to tell us more about this situation."
"It's doubtful unless he could look at the seal directly himself," Doctor Basileus said. "Yellow Magic leaves behind magical signatures that cannot be discerned by novices. I doubt he'd be able to tell you much more about who put the seal—or even the specifics of the seal—without seeing it himself."
"It won't hurt to ask," Havi retorted.
The good doctor nodded, withdrawing his hand. "Well, Miss Rose… I can confirm you are indeed a vessel. I can also confirm who you hold as prisoner is someone your magic trusts, as there's no natural aversion to the seal. That being said, I must urge extreme caution if you find yourself talking with this man again. He cannot harm you in the slightest, but we still do not know why or how he is there."
"Can he—can he burst free?" Rose whispered.
"He cannot leave his cell without your permission, or unless his cell is destroyed," he promised. "While I'm sure this is disturbing news, I can definitely reassure you it will not physically affect you in any way unless you choose it to. It is certainly an interesting situation, though. Bit of your own mystery to solve!"
"I'd rather not have anything to solve…" she muttered.
"Really? Not even the mystery of how to make a rainbow cleaning slime that lasts a whole year?"
Rose considered this and turned to look up at Doctor Basileus hopefully.
"Why don't you go get set up in the potions room?" He suggested.
"Okay!" Rose chirped, hopping off from the bed and dashing into the potions room, her anxiety starting to settle.
She knew if she allowed herself to dwell on the situation, she'd turn ten types of nervous. Of course it was nice to have reassurances that her privacy was still her own, and the man was possibly someone she could trust, but the fact remained that it was still a perturbing situation.
It also generated a lot more questions than answers.
Maybe I should write my own autobiography, Rose thought to herself as she opened up the goo tub. It's crazy enough. It might pass off as an adventure novel.
...🌹...
"Rose, may we come in?" Havi asked the following morning.
Early morning.
Early, early morning.
Rose glared tiredly at her clock that read 5:03 AM. She was not an early riser, but even then, she sat up and yawned out, "Yeah."
Havi and Philip entered the room, somehow already dressed. How Havi looked absolutely immaculate at five in the morning was beyond Rose. Havi and Philip sat on opposite sides of her on the bed, and Havi handed Rose a thick piece of paper that reminded her of the really old textbooks in the library.
It took her eyes a few seconds to catch up to the fact that it was apparently time to start reading. Squinting, she read:
My dearest grandson,
Grandson? Rose thought to herself. She thought it might have been an accident, but Havi's grandfather had handwritten it. It was such an odd thing that Rose couldn't stop herself from asking, "I thought this was Havi's grandfather? Um, is he talking to Philip?"
Havi's face clouded over, a dullness in her eyes that was only there for a few seconds before she shook her head. "No. It's… a long story, Rose. He is talking to me, and he is my grandfather."
Weird, Rose thought, but she decided against pursuing it. It seemed to make Havi uncomfortable, and Rose didn't want that. She decided to continue reading.
My dearest grandson,
As always, I am delighted to see your adorable letters, and I must thank you for the beautiful painting you did of the city during your Black Magic class. It proudly hangs in my office with the rest of your marvelous artwork. Truly, you must have inherited your grandmother's artistic touch as Elders know you didn't get it from your parents. Speaking of which, your mother sends her regards and has sent along more dresses for you to try, as well as several ties she would like opinions on.
Moving on to your inquiry, I must stress the importance of secrecy in this information. As much as I would love to properly teach you Yellow Magic, it is still illegal to do so. Perhaps in a few more decades when the wound Lord Carrow has left behind has had more time to heal, we may reopen discussion about strict apprenticeships. But for now, you must treat this information with the utmost care. I—of course—didn't put down anything that would warrant legal trouble, but given the topic, we must urge caution all the same.
Vessels became popular during the Era of Man when Neheburs first encountered humanity on Alvion. Humans are incapable of holding and manipulating magic, so they were the ideal prisons for beings too powerful to leave in magical areas. Vessels were willing humans who offered their bodies as prisons. Some humans held up to several dozens of prisoners, and it was considered a great honor to do so. It didn't hurt that they were wealthily rewarded, I'm sure.
No humans ever suffered ailments or discomfort from being a vessel. While I cannot specify how the ritual worked, I can reassure you that the very basics of the ritual require extensive layering to protect the vessel. Prisoners certainly could not free themselves, and the only way for them to leave their living cells would be through the vessel allowing it—a process extremely complicated that it could never be done by accident—or through the destruction of the vessel. Due to the latter, the vessels were guarded heavily and usually excluded from the public eye.
The fact that your dragon friend is a vessel comes as a great surprise. Unity was aware that Miss Rose's magic was repressed and allowed her to live a normal life among humans until the seal naturally wore off. Forcefully removing Miss Rose's seal prior to its natural degradation would result in significant enough pain that it could very well put her into shock and kill her. Not to mention it could potentially cripple her magical core and render her permanently disabled, resulting in her magic turning feral, or—worse—Brown. We, Unity, felt it best to simply monitor Miss Rose from a distance and allow the seal to naturally degenerate.
It is possible that the sealing of her magic could directly relate to her becoming a vessel, as a vessel must have no magic. While I believe in my expert opinion those two rituals could not overlay as one seal—and thus having one weaken over time will not affect the other—it poses an interesting mystery.
Without examining the seals personally, I cannot tell you much more except this: this is not something to worry about. Please put Miss Rose at ease.
When her magic is fully released, I am extremely confident that I can safely undo the seal, keeping her prisoner at bay. I am afraid that until then, she should bear with it.
As in regards to your question of who could have done such, I am afraid that is something I cannot tell you. Miss Rose's situation is being handled by Unity itself.
No, I do not know who Miss Rose's uncle might be. Yes, I'm sure. No, you are not allowed to visit Desoul over the summer to find out. Yes, Unity is still competent, and no, you may not hold another protest outside our building.
Yes, Miss Rose is allowed to stay with us over the summer if she so chooses, and yes, Mister Philip is always welcomed.
If you are thinking about sneaking into Unity's building in Atlantis again to try and solve this mystery, grounded will not even begin to cover it, young man.
Always with love,
Lord Vladimirion Del'mourie
...🌹...
"Unity knows about it?" Rose inquired, having immediately become alert when she realized what the letter was about. "They—they know why I'm here and not in Desoul?"
"That would make sense, wouldn't it? Dragons aren't allowed outside Desoul, but you're attending Gardenia which is a Unity school," Havi pointed out, biting her bottom lip. "I'm not sure why they haven't told you, but they can be stupid, sometimes."
"The only reason they wouldn't tell Rose would be if it would either be harmful to her, or harmful to the Community," Philip reasoned. "They may be politicians, but they aren't malicious."
"How could her knowing hurt them or herself?" Havi retorted.
"Maybe it's a protection thing?" Philip guessed. "She's still a minor, they might think the truth could be too traumatic for her to handle."
"And not knowing is better somehow?" Havi argued on Rose's behalf. "That's stupid."
"We can't judge the decision unless we know all the facts," Philip soothed his frustrated girlfriend. "You know your grandfather would tell you if he could, and right now, we certainly can't force that information. I hope you also understand, Rose."
Rose gave a shrug, her mind still reeling from all the information given to her. "I've gone my whole life not knowing about my family or where I came from. I can go a while longer. To be honest, if it's another bombshell like being a vessel for another uncle, I think I'd rather not know right now."
That got a couple chuckles out of them, and Havi reached over to pull Rose into a hug. "Okay. If you ever do feel the need to find out, let me know, okay? We'll figure something out. Worse case is we'll find a way into Desoul and hunt down your family."
Rose's cheeks warmed from the fact that Havi said 'we'. Like this whole mess was her mess, too.
Is that what friends do? Rose wondered, her chest tightening.
Philip put his arms around both of them, pulling them into his massive bear hug. "We'll figure this out, kiddo. Don't worry. Warriors stick together, through and through."
Rose closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax in their warm embrace.
I quite like having friends, she admitted.