“Are you insane?” Bek demanded of Silver. She glared at him, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms as she sank back into the cushions of a luxurious armchair.

They were in the library again. Unsurprisingly, since it was around three in the morning, it was empty except for the two of them. Above them, the domed ceiling was dark, its murals oily smudges against a gray backdrop. In the evenings, the MASO shut off the main lights, and what remained were a series of desk lamps that burned with a charming golden glow throughout the vast space.

“Possibly,” she stated emotionlessly, “I have, in the past month, found out that magic exists, nearly been killed by some sort of demon, nearly been killed by stone monsters, and held an egg that the director of the MASO – who, may I add, for some reason knows my name – believes to belong to a dragon. I think it is entirely plausible that I am insane.”

“So, because the director of the MASO knew your name, you decided to question his authority over…what, exactly? An egg that you thought was a pearl fifteen minutes before? Have you ever heard of lying low? Have you considered what it would mean if he had fired you right there?”

“For what, exactly? Asking a question? And I’ve never seen a dragon,” Silver stated reasonably, “Have you? Could it be maybe because some shady government agency is exterminating them?”

Bek scratched at his neck, narrowing both eyes at her as she spoke.

“As part of the role of director, Jorik is heavily involved in security. The name of every person who starts here crosses his desk,” Bek informed her.

“And he remembers them?” Silver cocked an eyebrow. “All of them? How many is that, exactly. You never said anything about hiring classes. How do most people end up working for the MASO.”

Bek paced away from her without answer, making his way towards one of the central desks to pull a sheet of what looked like blackboard material from beneath it. The sheet was at least four feet across.

“Why did you show up at school, Bek?” she asked more loudly, “Why were you sent to the hospital to pick me up and offer me a job here? Why were you following me? And don’t think I didn’t notice that you haven’t said anything about dragons yet.”

“I told you—” he began, but she cut him off.

“Deportation? Forged documents and stolen social security numbers? There are agencies for that sort of thing. You told me about them, in fact. So, why the MASO? Why you? Why now?”

“Silver,” he said more calmly as he pulled metal legs from the back of the board, standing it up in front of them, “the answer you’re looking for doesn’t exist. Audits happen semi-regularly, paperwork is shuffled, records are updated…I don’t know who exactly flagged you, but it was probably something that started in the IRS. There’s usually a small investigation, different departments and agencies get involved. Whoever forged your information was very skilled. It took years for the discrepancies to show…I was told magic was involved, which led to the MASO taking the case. We couldn’t risk normal people going in to arrest you and being lit on fire, for example. Believe me, if it had turned out that there was nothing magical going on, the case would have been sent back to the proper authorities, and your situation would be much different right now. Also,” he tapped the board and suddenly it was covered in text, “I’m about to tell you everything we know about dragons.”

“You mean everything I need to know about dragons,” she observed. He grinned, an expression that for a moment reminded Silver of the director himself.

“Yes, I mean everything you need to know about dragons. And about Project Biogenes. So, first point…” Bek pointed at the first line on the board, the silvery letters bright under the lamplight.

Dragons are extinct.

“But—”

“Now you know why the eggs are a big deal,” Bek said before she could finish. He moved his hand to the second line.

Biogenes is the codename for the project to successfully clone dragons using a combination of fragments of DNA recovered from dragon remains and genetic information collected from surviving species within the order Draco.

Silver stared at the words as they changed before her eyes. Bek, meanwhile, was speaking. “Shortly, I’ll take you to see Je Koren, the first living result of Biogenes. By and large, his size and intelligence are the product of genetic material harvested from bone and tissue samples recovered in Siberia, one of the dragons’ last strongholds in the eighteenth century. He is unable to make use of the particular magics that made dragons one of the most powerful and revered mythical beasts of their era.”

Silver knew her expression must reflect her disbelief. He pointed at the next line on the board.

The goal of Biogenes is to determine the genetic origin of magic. In the past thirty years, a considerable number of genetic markers related to magical capacity and lean patterns has been collected. Unfortunately, while humans and many of the mythical beasts are capable of a low level of magic manufacture, the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Additionally, no living beast is known to be able to draw magical power from the atmosphere, an ability routinely attributed to dragons in texts dated before their extinction.

“Remember I told you just a bit about where magic comes from?” Bek asked, glancing at her, “When you or I use magic, we draw on the reserves we have produced. Once those reserves are exhausted, the effects are similar to any other form of physical exhaustion. Complete exhaustion can result in death or permanent injury. Thus, the majority of magical education deals in efficiency, through the use of items that enhance our effectiveness: visual aids, circuits, circles, mediums, etc. We believe dragons were the primary manufacturer of atmospheric magic, and drew from it freely to work their spells. As a result, they had a nearly bottomless reservoir of magic to draw from, and were among the most powerful creatures ever to walk the earth.”

Her eyes moved to the next line as it appeared.

The project is ultimately meant to replenish atmospheric magic to the degree that it can be harnessed as a renewable source of energy in our everyday lives.

“The MASO would say we are ushering in a new age of magic for mankind.”

“New age?” Silver repeated softly. “Wait, backup. If you’re cloning dragons, what would the surrogate be? You just said they’re extinct.”

“A rare desert beast that travels in the less hospital portions of the Sahara. It seems like you kept up with your biology homework.”

“I’m an A student,” Silver stated, “but I’m sure you know that.”

“In fact,” Bek half-smiled, “I do. Now, the beasts’ natural gestation period is roughly six months. Judging by the growth rate of the beast in question, the dragons would reach an adolescent phase rapidly, possibly as early as a year. Sexual maturity will most likely occur much later. We already have the facilities here to rigorously study their magical abilities and determine whether they really do utilize and produce large quantities of atmospheric magic as they grow.”

Silver was silent, stunned by the rush of information and the impossibilities that it presented. It was all too strange. Magic and science, merged into a single field with a single goal. Magic, a word used concurrently with science as a tangible, known, absolute power wielded with such precision that, to these people, there could be no doubt that it was absolutely real.

She said as much, and Bek nodded slowly.

“Magic is very real, Silver, though I don’t think your idea of magic and mine are anywhere near the same. It is a thing that surrounds people every day. It is to blame for many miracles - not all, but many. People use it to cast light, to boil water…but there are criminals who can do such terrible things with magic that people would hide in their homes if they knew. The world brims with curses and monsters. If magic is a reflection of ourselves, sometimes that merely means it casts us in starker shades of good and evil. That’s why the MASO exists.”

Silver regarded him steadily as he explained more specifics of the project, directing the board time and again to display new lines of text and, at times, diagrams. To some degree, he answered her questions, or referred her to a rapidly growing list of research papers he suggested were available on the online archives.

“If I were you,” he stated after the better part of three hours, “I would read some of these papers tonight." He flicked his wrist over to display a perfectly ordinary wristwatch. “We’re expected in Jorik’s office in two and a half hours. The cafeteria opened at five if you want to grab a bite before that.” It was an open invitation, and she took it with a weary nod.

“I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep right now. Are you sticking around here?” she asked.

“No. I need a word with Cynthia. You must have heard that I need to inform her that Jorik is waiting on her report. I’ll leave us at least an hour and a half when I come back.”

“Sure.” Silver watched him pack up the board and send it off in the direction of the table with a wave of his hand. By the time it had settled, feather-light, under the desk in the center of the room, he was exiting through the library doorway. Heaving a sigh, she sank back into the cushions to stare up at the shadowed ceiling.

It was doubtful that she was going to be able to keep up with their conversation in the director’s office, especially when she felt ready to fall asleep where she sat. A few hours earlier, she might have tried to catch some shut eye before the new day, but now she was resigned. At least Ryan would probably cancel her training when he saw the black bags under her eyes.

Forcing herself up, Silver headed for the yard upon yard of bookshelves lining the library walls. To access the online archives, she would need to be on the computers at the other end of the room, but at the moment, reading research papers seemed like the surest way for her to lose the battle with sleep. Instead, she perused the titles in the various sections of the library. In the two weeks she had been at the MASO, she had not yet had a chance to explore the library at all – their collection of books was impressive. Many of the classics she was not surprised to find, but there were books in a multitude of languages, dating back, so far as she could tell, to the seventeen-hundreds. It would be paradise to anyone who loved literature, and she was not immune to its charms.

Fifteen minutes later, she had a stack of books twelve deep balanced on one of the thick library tables. They were books she had never heard of, most with stunning artwork. She flipped through several, ogling images of distant cities and Egyptian tombs, then illustrations of a somewhat frightening fairy tale called the Twilight Bird. When she reached for the fourth book and cracked it open, she was surprised to find characters like those she had seen around the base of the fountain. They were meaningless to her, of course, but they were distinctive enough to be memorable.

“What is this…?” she muttered, running a finger across the unfamiliar words. It appeared to be something scientific, and peering up at the shelves she realized she had indeed pulled it from a different section than the others. Jumping ahead, she found numerous diagrams like those she was used to seeing in old chemistry textbooks.

“Huh.” She leaned back after a while, stretching her stiff spine. It had been over an hour. Stifling a yawn, she rose to collect the books she would not have time to get to. Just the one…she could keep that for a while. When she reached for the stack, however, she hesitated. A silver book with an unmarked, scaled cover sat on the very top. Silver was certain she had not grabbed it, particularly since it looked suspiciously like the one that had burned her before.

At that moment, she heard footsteps in the hallway outside the library. Silver looked sharply towards the doorway, seeing Bek approach. When she looked back at her stack of books, the silver book was gone.

Disappearing books…why not? There was enough crazy in her life already.

“I see you got to those research articles,” Bek observed with a bit of humor in his voice as he approached. “Tombs of the Pharaohs. This is a good one.”

“Good pictures,” Silver said as he glanced at the book she had open. She might have imagined his hesitation when he rotated to meet her gaze.

“Let’s get going. We don’t have too much time. These will sort themselves out.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, closing the foreign book. Bek gestured her towards the door.

“I mean the library knows where everything belongs. Don’t get too spoiled, though. Outside of this place, you’ll still have to shelve your own books for the rest of your life, even with magic.”

Silver shrugged as they headed for breakfast, but she did look back once as they exited, hoping to see some flying books. She was to be disappointed.

The table was already empty.