Enola

I sat on the hill over my den – my former den – and stared out in the direction of the lake. I could feel something...

The rider bond told me Simon was still in the small chamber he had used as his room. I had already finished clearing out my rooms – I had already moved most of my possessions into the healer's saddle back when Cess had first brought it to me, so I had only needed a few minutes to scoop up the few remaining coins and the silly cup that pompous herald had tried to bribe me with. It was a strange feeling, but... there was nothing left in my lair. My home of thirty years was now empty.

Once Simon finished up, we would be all done. There wouldn't be anything left for us here. I could charge the 'web' spell with enough magic to keep it going for a few years, and then forget all about this place. The Sea Guard would assign somebody else here to keep the spell going and to watch for any further naga attacks, and... that would be that.

I would go back home, with all the magic and skills I needed to be a healer. I would build out a proper aerie on a cliff or mountain somewhere, instead of buried underneath the ground. I would start a family. I would be with Cess. I would... I would have my whole future ahead of me. The way I should have had it thirty years ago. Finally, after all the years of hiding.

But my reawakened mage senses were telling me there was something more left to do. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the spell I had cast all those years ago, tracing down every strand...

The spell had grown since I had first cast it. That had been part of my intention with the spell – I had no way of knowing where the naga sorceress had placed her spell, so I had no way of being sure mine would cover it. I had been panicking with my magic draining away, and I knew I would not have a chance to cast a second counterspell if I messed up. So I had sculpted the spell to adapt, and adapt it had. But with my mage senses dulled from the lack of magic, I had failed to realize just how far the web of the spell had spread.

But now I could clearly sense every piece of the spell. It covered the entirety of the human town and extended a good distance past it. The lake was completely covered as well, along with a stretch of the distant river that fed into the lake, though the spell seemed to taper off past the far side of the lake. It covered the crystal mine and stretched out toward the forest – the spell had probably sensed flickers of my magic before the magedebt had devoured it, and had grown in the directions I had slept and hunted in response – but for the most part the spell seemed concentrated in the areas the humans went. Strands meandered between the buildings to follow the paths humans had taken as they walked through their town, or split off into the fields to track down a farmer, or curved out into the forest to follow children as they ran out to play games in the areas their parents forbid them from going.

Everywhere that the naga's spell had tried to attack the humans, my counterspell had followed after it. It had hunted down the traces of my own magic and smothered them, healing the twisted illness as it tried to take root. There had been points where my counterspell had been low on magic, and hadn't done as good a job at protecting the humans... but it had always followed after the naga's spell, tracing doggedly after any hint of it.

And it had clumped around one portion of the lake in particular. While most of the spell was a web of feelers spread out in search of my magic, my working mage senses could feel where the spell had returned to one spot again, and again, and again. It had formed layers of knots in the spell. A cocoon, where the spell had wrapped its strands around something again and again and again. A heavy concentration of my own magic.

The anchor point of the naga's foul spell.

I felt a faint flicker of another magic against my senses as I followed my spell to that spot. A hidden sensation that I had not felt in over thirty years, and that none of the other dragons had been able to hunt down in all that time. The strange feeling that had caught my attention back then, and that had lured me into the naga's trap. The naga spell.

I had finally found it.

"Enola?" I opened my eyes, realizing through the rider bond that Simon had come outside while I was distracted. "I've got everything. Are we ready to head back to Cess and the soldiers?"

"No." I shook my head, still staring out at the lake. "There is one more thing I need to do first."

~

I flapped my wings in a slow motion, keeping myself in a steady hover above the water below me. The cocoon of my counterspell told me that the naga spell was directly beneath me. It was still hard to make out, even flying right above it, but my own spell told me what to look for. I could feel it now. It was a foul spell, distorting life itself to reach out and spread disease. Distorting my healing power to sicken. To weaken, and make ill.

To kill.

The naga had killed one of their giant turtles while it was still in the egg to fuel the spell, and the egg was still down there. Enchanted to corrupt the magic that had been ripped from me, so that it would attack any creature that drank from this lake. Infect any plant that drew water from it, be it by underground spring, or dew, or rainfall.

It was a malevolent tumor. It stunted the growth of the crops here. It sapped the strength of the animals. And if allowed to reach a human, it redoubled its disgusting efforts. It inflicted them with serious illness, ultimately even killing them. Another of the naga's many attempts to wipe out dragons by hitting us where we were weakest – humans.

I hated the feeling of the naga's spell. My magic was something meant to help others, something meant to heal. And for thirty years, this disgusting spell had turned my magic against that purpose.

Rage began to build inside me as I felt more and more of what the naga had done here. This was wrong.

But I was a healer. A dragon. The tumor would fester here no longer.

The only question was how I would remove it.

It had been decades since I had cast any battle magic, and... I hadn't been that great at those spells even back then. I could manage a passable lightning spell, but I didn't think that would be very useful here – the naga hadn't put the egg in the deepest part of the lake, probably because that would be the first place we would look, but it was still fairly deep. Even repeated strikes of lighting would be useless, since the water would dissipate the electricity long before it could reach the egg.

The start of a freezing spell came to mind – a battle spell that my father had gotten creative with. He had usually used it to make ice for his rider's drinks, but he had also used it a few times to make a treat for me and my siblings – a dish of fluffy ice mixed with fruit juices. His rider had called it a 'snowcone', and it was pretty good. I could use that spell and try to freeze the water down to the egg... maybe shape it into a jagged spear so it would pierce and smash the egg that held the spell together... but I wasn't sure that would work even if I could remember how to manage the spell. Ice tended to float, so even if I froze most of the lake, it wouldn't necessarily crush the egg. I did have enough magic from Simon to freeze the lake solid if I wanted to, but there was no guarantee that freezing the egg would actually destroy the naga's magic.

I could wait until Cess was recovered enough, and see if he knew of some battle magic that might work... but Cess was still resting back with the soldiers, and I wanted this horrible spell gone now. It could be days or even weeks before Cess was recovered enough to work a spell that could help here. Most of Cess' magic was wind magic, which probably wouldn't be much use either. And Cess would tease me the whole time if I mentioned I needed help with a spell, reminding me of...

I grinned as I remembered another spell I knew, and which had already proven useful at undoing naga sorcery.

Can't leave Enola alone for too long. She can't be trusted on her own. Go check on her and make sure she hasn't burned the lair down again.

I crafted a spell to carry my voice back to Simon even as I started climbing higher into the air. "Cover up as much of your skin as you can, then make sure you are in the center of the saddle."

His voice came back a little tinny, and I felt a bit of frustration at having messed up the simple voice-carrying spell enough to distort our voices. I also felt a confusing feeling of curiosity through the still-unfamiliar rider bond. "What's going on?"

"I am going fishing. You may get splashed." I grinned to myself, knowing the half-answer would annoy Simon.

An annoyed feeling came through the rider bond a half second later, but Simon began squirming in the saddle. A few moments passed before the rider bond told me that he was done, then I heard him call back down to me. "I'm as covered as I can be."

"Good. Hold on." I wheeled to get myself back over the turtle egg, feeling a bit of frustration at having let myself drift out of position while I had been focusing on Simon... then I began crafting one of the first spells I had ever learned. One of the first spells every hatchling in my family had learned. A simple spell used to create a few hot embers. A quick way to start a fire so that a human rider could cook their meal.

A spell I had used long, long ago, to try and surprise my father's rider with. And which I had never heard the end of, after the spell had gotten out of my control and caught on some dry scrolls that had been a bit too close to the firewood.

I stretched one hand out to guide the spell downwards, towards the lake beneath me. Towards the egg hidden deep, deep underwater. And for the second time since I had regained my magic, I cast the simple fire-starting spell.

But then I poured the magic of a Wellspring into it.

A column of blazing fire exploded from my hand. The fire started to blossom outwards almost immediately, trying to spread through the air in a growing dome shape... but I caught the spell before it could travel too far. I curved the fire back around and pushed it down towards the cold water beneath me.

Hot steam slammed into me as the water boiled around the fire. A hissing sound reached my ears an instant later, adding to the cackling and roaring of the column of fire. I crafted a shielding spell and pulled it around me, remembering only at the last second to cover Simon with it, too. The shield snapped into place around us and dulled most of the heat from the boiling water, but I still felt some getting through as the cloud of angry steam and mist rose to engulf us.

The surrounding water tried to rush in to replace the water I was boiling off, repairing the 'shield' that covered the naga's egg... and I responded by throwing more fuel into my spell. I angled my wings so that the downdraft from each wingbeat reached the point where the fire met the water, sending a rush of fresh oxygen into the inferno. The hissing sound grew louder and more heat made it past my shield, but I ignored it. The steam was nothing to me, and the rider bond told me Simon was still protected. I growled over the hissing steam and threw yet more of Simon's magic into the fire.

Fish bolted in a frenzy, stirring the water as they swam as fast as they could to get away from the superheated water. The heat pushed the hotter water outwards, aiding their escape, even as the sudden loss from boiling pulled the water back in, hampering them. The water began to churn around the edges of the fire, creating a small whirlpool barely visible through the cloud of steam.

Simon shouted something at me, but I ignored him. I could feel his alarm through the rider bond, but I could also tell the steam wasn't hurting him – the wrappings he had thrown over his hands and head were protecting him, along with the shielding spell around us. I could answer his questions later. I had no way to hear him over the hissing steam and crackling fire anyways, and I did not want to stretch my rusty magic skills by trying to shape another voice-throwing spell just now. Healing spells came naturally to me and were one thing, but I was badly out of practice at managing fire and sound spells.

The whirlpool grew larger as my fire burned deeper into the lake. More and more water rushed in, but my Wellspring-charged spell boiled it away faster than it came. I had burned through two dragon-lengths worth of water... three... A cloud of steam was rising over the lake now, hiding me in a humid cloud of rapidly cooling water vapor.

I briefly wondered what the humans in the town must be thinking. Had any of them seen me flying over the lake? Would they think I was up to something nefarious, and accuse me of being out to get them? Simon had mentioned one such human – Jack, who had been convinced I was the source of everything that went wrong in the villagers' lives. Would that human think I was attacking them in some way? Or had they only noticed the sudden appearance of the cloud over the lake, with no idea what was causing it?

A strange sense of giddiness filled me. I was doing magic again. After all these years. And not just any magic, but the kind most dragons could only dream of. There was no icy chill of fear at what might happen to Cess if I messed up, no pressure to hurry, no struggle to hold multiple spells at once. Just the fun of doing a spell. More magic power was passing through me than I would have generated in years – and I knew I would get it all back again in only a month or two, as the fabled powers of a Wellspring replaced the power I was expending.

I pointed my other hand toward the water and crafted another spell. A wide grin spread on my face as a second column of fire shot downwards, burning down into the lake.

The heat around us grew suddenly unbearable as twice as much water was flash-boiled into steam. Simon's alarm changed to pain, and I flinched at my carelessness. I put more magic into the shield, reveling in the magic all around me as I did, and the heat faded again. Simon's pain faded – he was not happy, but he was not in any further danger. I began to focus on a healing spell for him, but a quick check with my mage senses revealed he had only been slightly singed. The skin on the back of his hands might gain a slight pink color for a few days, but he had probably been victim to sunburns that had hurt him more.

More pink would do him some good, anyways.

Fourteen dragon lengths worth of water... sixteen...

The whirlpool began to compete with the sound of the fire and steam, adding a sound almost like a roar as the water swirled furiously beneath us. The cloud around us had grown too thick to see through, and I was relying purely on my mage senses. I could feel the cocoon of my spell, and the strange flicker of magic inside that cocoon. Just another dragon length or two to go...

I roared in triumph as I felt my fire reach the egg – and immediately burn through it. The columns of fire slowed as they hit the mud floor at the base of the lake, baking it instantly into brick, and beginning to blossom outwards into the surrounding water. I had cut a path from the surface of the lake straight down to the bottom, and that path burned with enough heat to boil water and cook mud.

I was a dragon.

And the naga spell was defeated.

I ended the fire spells.

The hissing of flash-boiled water began to fade. The roaring sound of churning water continued for a few moments... then it grew quiet, too. The thick cloud around us began to disperse as the vapor condensed back into the lake or followed the breezes and air currents elsewhere.

I looked down on a lake that was suddenly noticeably shallower. The water line at the shore was painfully obvious, showing just how much water I had boiled away with my spell.

But the naga's curse was gone. The humans here were finally safe. The water level would return to normal after a few good storms, and life would continue on, with none of the humans any wiser as to what had happened.

Simon sat up in the saddle, and I felt it through the rider bond as he prepared to say something to me. I cast the voice carrying spell in his direction, catching his words and directing them over the sound of my wings. "I get that I don't know everything about dragons. And I'm trying to be polite, I swear. I don't want to pry too much. But I just have to ask."

I grinned to myself and cast my voice back at him. "What?"

"Is that how all dragons fish, or just you?"

I didn't give Simon any warning as I swooped down to the lake. He yelped and clutched at the saddle, but I knew he was in no danger – the rider bond had confirmed he was still safely secured in the saddle before I had moved. I scooped up a dead fish that had floated to the surface – a large trout that hadn't been quite fast enough to outrun the column of fire – and I tossed it in an upwards arc over my shoulder.

Simon yelped again as the fish smacked him right in the face.

"Just me."