Burning Promise I a fourth wing ff

Scary Signets

"It was the coolest thing ever," Ridoc continues. "One second he was sparring against that third-year, and then Sawyer-"

"You could let him tell the story." Rhiannons chides, rolling her eyes.

"No thank you," Sawyer counters, shaking his head, staring at his fork with a hefty dose of fear. I swear this is the most scared I've seen him. It's funny, considering getting stabbed by a fork isn't the worst thing that could happen to him.

Ridoc grins, in all his glory telling the story. "And then the sword just twists in Sawyer's hand, curving toward the third-year even though Sawyer was way off the mark." He grimaces in Sawyer's direction. "Sorry, man, but you were. If your sword hadn't decided to wrap and go straight for that guy's arm-"

"You're a metallurgist?" Quinn's eyebrows rise. "Really?"

Sawyer nods. "That's what Carr says. Aetos dragged me straight to the professor when he saw it happen."

"I'm so jealous!" Ridoc grabs his chest. "I want my signet to manifest!"

"You wouldn't be so excited if it meant you weren't sure if your fork would stab into the roof of your mouth because you can't control it yet." He shoves his tray away.

"Good point." Ridoc looks down at his own tray.

"Try not to think about it." I pat his shoulder as an attempt to comfort him, although I don't think it helps.

"You'll manifest when your dragon is ready to trust you with all that power," Quinn says, then finishes off her water. "Just hope your dragon will trust you before about six months and-" She makes an explosion and mimics it with her hands.

"Stop scaring the children," Imogen says. "That hasn't happened in" she pauses to think "decades."

"But it has happened." I state in horror.

She rolls her eyes at us. "Look, the relic your dragons transferred onto you at Threshing is the conduit to let all that magic into your body. If you don't manifest a signet and let it out, then after a bunch of months, bad things happen."

We all gawk.

"The magic consumes you," Quinn adds, making the explosion sound again.

"Yeah I think we got that the first time." I deadpan.

"Relax, it's not like a hard deadline or something. It's just average." Imogen shrugs.

"Fuck me, it's always something around here," Ridoc mutters.

"Feeling a little luckier now," Sawyer stares at his fork.

"We'll get you some wooden utensils," Violet tells Sawyer. "And you should probably avoid the armoury or sparring with... anything."

Sawyer scoffs. "That's the truth. At least I'll be safe during flight this afternoon."

"I like it better when we have it in the morning," Rhiannon says, her face souring. "It's way worse after we've eaten breakfast and lunch."

"Agreed," Violet grimaces.

"I like it better when I can actually fly." I stab at the turkey on my tray.

"I still can't believe you pulled that during the first lesson." Sawyer laughs.

"You'd think they'd let you back up by now. It's been what... three classes since then?" Imogen asks.

"Hopefully this is my last class sitting out because I don't think I can take it anymore." I shake my head.

"Finish the turkey," Imogen turns to Violet. "I'll see you tonight." She and Quinn clear their trays, taking them back to the window for scullery.