Lethe felt quite comfortable here at the dragonry, after having spoken to several of the little dragonets she knew that one of them would come to her for a bond.

Just... Which one? The trio of females that approached her were quite different in many ways from one another. The two talkative ones were apt to bicker between themselves, while the third more impressively tried to calm them down.

And it was, during the bonding ceremony, that it turned out those two bickering annoyances made themselves out to be little rebels. They took off with what appeared to be an 'opposing faction' and Lethe never saw them again.

However, it was the third - the nice sensible bronze colored and feather winged one, that came to her during the ceremony. Having chosen somehow, to come back to Lethe instead of choosing another. Lethe's heart swelled with pride and happiness!

The little bronze female stepped forth. She snagged a scroll from the basket - which was now set carefully upon the floor, and strode bravely across the floor, up to the powerful mage, Lethe . "I don't know about you, but I think that I'd be far better to have around then a pair of air-heads... no offence meant to my friends, or anything, but you know what I mean?" Wessume Landwerlen grinned widely. "I may not be as much of a mage as you, but I'm willing to learn, at least!"

Lethe hugged the dragon warmly, her hide was almost the color of molten metal. "I'm sure you will, too. Especially with what I've got in store for us in the future..."

***

What was that she wanted to do? Well!

With the school here still in flux, Lethe set about learning as much as she could about her considerable powers. One of the things she learned how to do, while experimenting, was meditate herself into a new universe. It was... similar. But not the same. When she felt the oddity of not having her bonded dragon close to her, Lethe first wanted to panic. But she kept her head, reversed the process.

"Where did you go!?" Wess squealed, suddenly girlish and worried. "I missed you - you were not here!"

"I know, I know, I was..." She looked around, "not ... here. Somewhere else. But let's try something new, okay?" She pulled the still young and rather small sunlight bronze dragonet to her side. "Sit here, with me. Contact my mind. See what I see."

The dragon did so, and suddenly - much more quickly than before - they were in this other place.

It was a school, somewhat like Lethe remembered being at. But it wasn't her old school at all. People who rather resembled the assortment of races, kinds and breeds at Driolo wandered by, and some even brightly smiled and said hi. They were apparently rather used to the idea of people appearing out of nowhere and with dragons near.

"Hey, that's a beautiful dragon!" Someone said, in passing. Their friends looked, commented to each other, and hurried along to their classes.

"Ahem," said a voice behind Lethe, and even Wessume was startled. It was a man, but not Orn's, and not Ian's.

When she turned, there was a tallish, fairly burly older man in a nice suit standing flanked by a number of what looked like school officials.

"Hi," she said, a bit worried. "I ... Um, I'm intruding, aren't I?"

"Not at all," said one woman, a slender black girl with two-toned hair and a cyberdeck jacked into her temple on both sides. "We were wondering when you'd be making your real first appearance here."

Wessume sent a "?" to her bond, and Lethe shrugged back the same way. After all, how could she know what this woman meant?

"She's quite powerful," said a woman who appeared to be in her mid-forties, but gave off an aura - at least visible to Lethe - of great, almost terrifying age. "I shall work on the foundation right away, if that is all right with you?" She turned to the older man, who nodded and grunted, and then walked away onto the grassy area nearby.

"That's Ninhursag," the man said, extending his hand and helping Lethe to her feet. Wessume stood only as high as the mage's ribcage even with her ears fully perked, and they weren't - they were flat and wary. "My name is Luger, I'm the dean here at Carramba High School. That's where you've been lurking."

"Lurking," Lethe muttered, "I just got here."

"Actually," the black woman said, typing something up and showing off her cool brightly lit holographic screen, "you've been here many times before, you just probably don't remember it. We've been waiting for you to appear physically - and now you have. And with a dragon!" She crooned, "oh you'll fit right in here, we have a batch of dragons."

"Hold up," Lethe said, raising her hand and shaking her fingers. "No, no, I've just arrived. I came like ten minutes ago, alone, and then came here with Wessume."

"Is that her name? Oh she's beautiful," the black woman continued to make baby eyes at the dragon, who wanted to hiss at her. "Oh, I'm Cybil Qeats, by the way, admissions and special instructions. I know you've been here, my database is never wrong." She patted the cyberdeck, and Lethe's head swum.

"So... wait. You have a machine that knows I've been here. How can you prove that?"

"Carramba High is at a Nexus point," Luger said, "it's nothing to worry about. You'll get used to it. You might be surprised. Some of the folks who travel from another dimension - ME," he said in a mocking tone with a very friendly smile under his bushy mustache, "even had tenure when we got here 'the first time'. It's a matter of time travel, compensation, and the Nexus is a really twisty turny place."

Wessume sat her butt down, folded her still-growing wings, and tilted her head. 'I like him,' she said privately.

'Me too, he's nice.' Lethe commented back.

"That's done," Ninhursag said walking back up to the group. Lethe turned to see that part of the grassy area was now entirely flat and with a deep rectangular hole cut into the ground. "It's ready for the building, so go ahead." She flounced away, in a nice spring dress with her hair in ringlets dancing in the breeze. She was extraordinarily pretty, now that Lethe got a look at her aura again.

She was, to put it bluntly, a goddess.

At a school. Where she'd apparently just modified the ground (Lethe could see the auras of this stuff, even though she should have detected it going on) and left it ready to be built. And then - there was a building there.

Lethe blinked a couple times, and then simply gave up.

"Okay, so... I will be working there?" Lethe asked.

"Yes, essentially," Luger nodded. "If you wish to. And your friend if he can keep his fangs to himself."

"WHAT?" Lethe yelled and spun, to see Orn standing there looking all smug.

But he also had two good reasons to have that bastard look on his face... Standing beside and behind him were two dragons. They looked just like things in that one movie, Alien...

"And those things are... what?" Lethe demanded of him, but Orn just smiled and shrugged.

"My bonds, Evistora and Retalet." They had two heads each. All four hissed and snapped at Wessume, who puffed herself up suddenly and flared her wings. "My my, an angelic little bond. I hope she can fly fast."

Lethe stood between her rival and her dragon, but then Dean Luger stepped up to bat. "That will be enough of that, Boothe, you know the rules."

With a bitter look on his face, the handsome emotional vampire nodded and turned away. "Come along, Lethe, the magic building awaits. They made it for someone else, but we will be allowed to use it."

"How did you get here?"

"I followed you of course, do you think I've merely been waiting for your return all this time?" He waved his hands at his obviously adult bonds. "Time moves very strangely in these between-worlds. I'm sure you'll get it sometime." His tone was mocking, but he meant the words - Lethe of all people would understand how to move between worlds soon enough.

"So you're not content to just try and overthrow one school," Lethe grumbled as they toured the building, "you want this one as well?"

"Oh you misunderstand me," Orn said. "I've been here longer than you, I've discovered that magic has always worked here. Not so on our world. There is no need to get violent or ... commit genocide, to get what I want here."

"Good," Lethe said. "Because I'm warning you. You cross me here, or in our world, and I'll personally rip you into shreds small enough that your little weird dragons won't be able to find them all."

If Orn was worried about her outburst, he didn't show it. His bonds did - the big one especially, but Lethe stood her ground. Wessume also did, emboldened by the presence of Luger and the others. She was brave - but she was still quite young and small! Some day, she promised herself, the xenos would regret any danger they put her in!

** 2.5.26 Addition to clarify where they are now **

Lethe is currently functioning as the Dean of the CHS magic department, and is on site usually only there, accessable only by those with the power or an Admin pass to get in. Since the area is rather dangerous at times, this is a protective measure.

Lineage

Mates and Descendants