“Well, that was a complete disaster,” Blake muttered angrily, as the two men walked away from the meeting room.

“My dear stablemaster, I see this as a great success.” Rueban disagreed, “We forced the little dragon to expose it’s secrets. Before we had a strange dragon that could talk to one catgirl, now we have a dragon who can talk to anyone and can cast spells, but in a strange way no one has ever seen before. Think how interesting that will be when I can properly research him!” he added with a fanatical gleam in his eyes.

Blake frowned, then asked, “Well, how does that help me?”

“How much do you make as a stablemaster? A couple of gold talen a month? Three? This dragon is worth hundreds if not thousands. We just need to find the right investor for my research project, and I have a recording of what the dragon can do, right here.” Rueban said, pulling down his hood and lifting the hair that draped over his forehead to show off an embedded deep red dungeon core.

After Blake left, the Duke turned to face Rex, “Rex, there is only one thing I want from you; that you be a loyal dragon to my son, one that will not simply decide to flip over in flight and let him fall to his death.”

“Father!” Eric objected.

The duke ignored this and continued, “Therefore, I am worried that you do not trust us. You keep secrets, you have powers not even Leonard understands, and that makes you dangerous. My son trusts you, but I don’t, not yet. That is why I am not going to replace Blake, because he keeps a close eye on you. What I will offer you is this; if at any time you do not wish to stay here any longer, I will send you to the dragon wilds, and release you. Do you wish to be set free?” The duke asked.

Rex considered the question, then asked one of his own; “Can I take Karla with me?”

“No,” the duke said, “First of all, Karla would die. Dragons do not attack their own kind, you would be safe there. But you are only an infant in dragon terms. Even my Ignatius is but a teenager in dragon years, your kind isn’t considered full grown until you are about sixty years old. Not only that, but your kind never stops growing, though it is much slower after your tenth year. There are ancient dragons in the north that would see Karla as a tasty mouthful that you can not even hope to scratch. You will not be able to protect her from them. Secondly, Karla is mine. I will not reward her loyalty to you with freedom, because it is not her job to be loyal to you. If she proves herself loyal to my son, perhaps.” The duke glanced at Karla and Eric, “Well, let me motivate you both, if Eric graduates the academy with honors, with Karla’s help as a dedicated stablegirl, then I will give her freedom and promote her to assistant stablemaster. The three of you work hard, that will be your reward.”

Idea objected inside Rex’s head,

Rex was torn, so he glanced at Karla, “What do you want to do? Don’t answer now, but think about it and answer when we are alone. Do you want to try to escape to the republic or do you want to stay here?” He asked via the speakers in her ear.

But, Karla spoke up, “I believe in you, master Howard. I will work as hard as I can so Eric does well, because I know you would not go back on your word to free me and give me a job where I can stay here with Rex and young master Eric.”

Rex was surprised, and Idea was a bit disappointed, but for Karla, the reward was a shining beacon that only required that she continue doing work that she wanted to do anyways. While the escape attempt was a dangerous murky road. She didn’t need to think about it.

“Very well, then we are done here. Able, lead me to my next meeting,” the duke instructed, then the two men left, leaving only Leonard, Eric, Karla, Rex and the silent Ashe who had watched everything but had said nothing.

Eric cleared his throat, “When I am duke, I will free my slaves.” He told Karla, taking her hand. “I have tried to get my father to do the same, but he says that politics prevents him from taking that step. Our family is part of a faction of nobles that support slavery, and switching sides would come at a cost. I don’t care, I don’t think slavery should be allowed at all. When I am duke, I will make changes.” He promised. “For now,” Eric continued as he reached into his pouch and pulled out a gold Talen, putting it in Karla’s hand, “I will pay you for your work from my allowance. A gold talen is not much to me, but it is two months' pay for a stableboy. Ask Ashe to take you shopping for some clothes or something nice for yourself,” He told the stunned catgirl, who was staring at the coin in her hand in disbelief.

“I will be happy to take her, young master,” Ashe said.

Eric nodded, then turned to Rex, “Can you use your magic so I can hear you and no one else can like Karla can? That’s so cool, like a spell of sending, right?” He glanced at Leonard who nodded.

“That is what a spell of sending does.” the wizard agreed, “Lets you speak to one person so no one else can overhear. Works over a distance of several miles.”

“Give me your hands,” Rex said, following Idea’s instructions.

Eric stretched out his hands, then Rex licked them. “Ewww, is that really how you do it?” He asked. “All your magic involves your tongue.” He complained.

“Now put your hands over your ears for a minute while the magic takes effect.” Rex instructed. This was to allow the tiny nanobots in his drool access to Eric’s ear, where they would sacrifice themselves to set up tiny receivers and speakers. Unlike the much larger robofleas, they were not intended to last long, Idea had not had time to prepare specialized robots for Eric’s sudden request, but this would work too, Idea promised.

Turning to Leonard who’d been watching the process of Rex’s “spell” with a raised eyebrow, Rex asked, “Can I have that broken PDC?”

Leonard glanced at the gem he was still holding and shrugged, “Certainly.” he held out his hand, “But don’t lick me.” He added, somewhat jokingly, somewhat seriously.

Gently, Rex picked up the broken PDC with his clawed fingers then tossed it into his mouth where he swallowed it whole.

“Not even going to chew?” Leonard asked, a bit startled.

“I’m going to fix it with my magic.” Rex explained.

“I feel sorry for Karla, if she’s going to have to recover that when it comes out the other end,” Leonard stated.

Rex snorted, “No, it will stay inside,” He explained. “I have a special second stomach where I can store stuff.”

“How bizarre,” Leonard opined, to which Ashe nodded. “Could you share with us some of your other abilities?” Leonard asked the dragon.

Rex hesitated. “I will try to explain, but in return, could you explain a bit about classes? The PDC said I could create my own class, before it broke. I am hoping when I fix it, I will be able to do that.”