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Description
[Urusla Callistis is a first year teacher at Luna Nova Academy, or at least will be at the start of next year. With blue hair* in a side plait alongside red eyes*, the young woman in her early twenties comes to Monarch's Cardiff office dressed in a simple black scarf and the dark violet hooded dress worn by most LN staff. She is somewhat nervous coming in, but quickly manages to hide it under a composure after entering my office. My note book and recorder are on the table as usual.

It should be noted that Ms. Callistis has a bit of an interesting family history; from a dragon obsessed grandmother, a pair of aunt's and uncles known for their role in the philosophical "Human Order" debate that briefly put LN in conflict with the Clock Tower in the 70's, to a retired mother who served a long career in battling the Meganulon outbreaks of the 1980's.

Today on the fifth day of February, I am offering an Monarch-funded exchange for at least 300 British pounds in exchange for the interview once it concludes; time will tell what Ms. Callistis will do.

She takes seat across from my desk, and the interview begins.]

*Bright hair and eye colors are common on magic using species.

[-]

Q: I'm glad that you could make it here Professor. As I've said in our correspondences, I simply want to inquire about any shared history between mages and dragons. Nothing more and nothing less.

A: Thank you for this offer, but you needn't call me professor...yet. That's still a year away.

(Pause)

So...about those dragons! I do know that there are rumors of a trade of some sorts between the Arcturus based Primal Coven and the dragon known as Fafnir centuries ago, but that broke apart after Fafnir disappeared not long after making the deal. Some say he was killed by a powerful hero, others that he simply left.

Like you, most of what I know comes from old legends. I know some witches hunted smaller dragons for their scales, and there are some stuffed bodies of some dwarf species in prominent offices of mages and in the hunting lodges of some senior Wild Hunters...but other then that, I've never seen a dragon in the flesh myself.

I mean, I've seen kaiju. I'm sure you've heard about that giant fight in Crete five years back. I was there, I saw it all. It's...not an experience I'd like to go through again any time soon.

So, aside from the stories and the bones I've seen at displays, I don't have much to say about actual dragons but-

(Subject pauses) I may have...actually, there is something I might, know from when I was a kid, but it is rather, how should I put it, personal-

Q: Look if this is getting to close to home, we can take a break for an hour if you need it.

A: (Subject pauses to compose herself)-Never mind. I'm ready.

It involves my grandmother.

Her name was Char. She was a prominent professor back at the same academy my mother went to. She was not only a teacher, but a magical researcher. Strict and not afraid to yell at her students whenever they made an error. But in the end, not single class of hers failed. It all payed. But that was before...(Pause) There was an accident during my mother's final year.

Grandmother was in a lab, one where she was studying flesh from Yggdrasil itself, trying to figure out how the magic generating ability would work in the right conditions. Something went wrong, a valve misplaced or potion swapped with something more reactive by mistake...but there was an explosion. The Yggdrasil flesh boiled down into plasma and splashed onto her face, some of it was ingested by her.

She survived, there were minor burns, but from then on she was never the same.

She suddenly gained an obsession with dragons. Species, range, old legends...you name it. She was an expert...and it consumed her utterly. She began "dragon-proofing" our family home with special metals on the roof walls that could resist (pauses) not heat oddly enough, but lightning.

Her room piled up with books, both on myths and on fossil records. Aside from defense, she turned to talk about killing dragons. "We die or they die" she would say to every inquiry on the matter. Swords, axes, even guns were buried in a locked chest for the time. Stranger still, at nights she would hide under a tarp and stare ahead into the night sky with a telescope, telling anyone who asked that she was "Keeping watch."

Whatever was in that lab accident, that liquified Yggdrasil material, whatever fused with it...had turned a professional with a record into an obsessed woman who barely resembled the esteemed professor she once was.

My mother, Helen, she had to take charge of the family at that point. Had to claw my family out of the humiliation and the shame.

From then on, while mages would still use the leylines, never again was an experiment on studying Yggdrasil itself done on such a wide scale. That's how major the incident was.

When I was born, Grandmother lived in the same house as us. Her obsession had calmed a bit, but even so she would still go on about her newfound hatred and fear of dragons whenever anyone asked.

Most called it insanity.

Char called it "Insight."

But, despite what I heard about her personality and how I saw her react towards visitors that refused to take her claims of impending doom seriously, she was always nice to me. Perhaps she saw potential in me, or maybe, just maybe there was one last ounce of sanity left that saw a reminder of her younger, saner self in me.

When mother was gone on her many duties as a mage, grandmother would read to me about various legends.

You can probably guess where these conversations went.

She'd show me how to hold a spear, tell me the best ways to stab with a sword. What kind of magic to know in the future, to fight or flee. The "Siegfried Special" she'd call it. How to hold my head to the side in case any blood splashed in my face should I stab a dragon. I was really young back then, it must have seemed like great fun to me, but looking back...

(Subject pauses for a good while)

Mother would have never let these lessons happen. Now knowing what I know, there were so many times I could have potentially gotten hurt-nevermind, I have to continue.

(Pause. Glasses of water are brought in for us both.)

One night in February, when I had just turned ten, I remember waking up and seeing her right outside the window under the moonlight, staring up ahead with that scope of hers at the night sky.

Mother was gone on a business trip for the week. It was just me and her until mother would return in the morning.

My curiosity was peaked. I went downstairs, walked out the door. I asked her what she was doing, having never seen her like this. It had been years since she had done an all night stargazing.

"Looking for dragons." she said. Being ten, I asked her what finally came to my mind. "Why?"

"Because we have to find the dragons before they find us." She said. I remember looking around, confused. "But grandmother, no dragons have ever come around here for years!" I think I may have reached a bit of a breaking point. "You've looked and looked and searched and searched but no dragons have ever appeared at the Academy or at home! Why, why are you so obsessed with them? The dragons, they are all dead like you read to me! They are just bones in the ground! Why can't you just rest-"

I'm not sure what else I said, but I remember being really out of breath. She paused then smiled.

"No. Not the dragons here. Never the dragons, " She held a hand to the ground at her feet. "Here. I was never talking about the dragons on this world."

This was quite a surprise to me. In just a few sentenecs, my perspective of her changed.

I finally spoke up again as I sat down next to her. "If not here then...where? Where are the dragons that scare you so much?" She shook her head and handed the scope to me.

"I don't fear them. I hate them. Just like he does." Slowly, she lifted a bony finger. "Not the dragons from here."

She leaned on a nearby tree, her finger pointing at the night sky full of stars above us.

"From There" she whispered, her arm slowly lowering.

I grew confused, lifting up the scope and looking at the stars above. "Where Cha-grandmother, what do the stars have to do with dragons?"

I slowly turned to her still form, no response. Turning back, I looked up at the stars, trying to spot whatever it was that got her attention as if in a trance before I turned back to her. When no response came, I thought she had fallen asleep.

I shook her with no response.

It would take awhile for me to realize that she was dead.

Her heart had stopped mere seconds after her last words.

She had died right in front of me after finally managing to give vital clue about her dragons I didn't even know it for more then five minutes.

(Subject pauses, then drains her glass. She sets it down with audible force before speaking in a firmer tone then before.)

Perhaps my grandmother really was crazy. Maybe she genuinely did get insight into the ways of the universe from the tainted concoction that splashed into her face.

Whatever her personal dragons were-

(Subject pauses and stands up before heading over to the nearby window. Pausing, she looks through the window as if up at the sky from my position)

-They weren't from this world, but somewhere farther away.

[Thus ends one of the most tense moments of my career. A story that stared off innocently enough ended in an intense manner. Ms. Callista gave me permission to publish this interview, and as a thanks I've changed the names of the mentioned relatives for the sake of discretion and respect towards real issues. I wish her luck and an untroubled teaching career in the days ahead.]

[Hopefully her tenure will be a peaceful one.]

Description
[Urusla Callistis is a first year teacher at Luna Nova Academy, or at least will be at the start of next year. With blue hair* in a side plait alongside red eyes*, the young woman in her early twenties comes to Monarch's Cardiff office dressed in a simple black scarf and the dark violet hooded dress worn by most LN staff. She is somewhat nervous coming in, but quickly manages to hide it under a composure after entering my office. My note book and recorder are on the table as usual.

It should be noted that Ms. Callistis has a bit of an interesting family history; from a dragon obsessed grandmother, a pair of aunt's and uncles known for their role in the philosophical "Human Order" debate that briefly put LN in conflict with the Clock Tower in the 70's, to a retired mother who served a long career in battling the Meganulon outbreaks of the 1980's.

Today on the fifth day of February, I am offering an Monarch-funded exchange for at least 300 British pounds in exchange for the interview once it concludes; time will tell what Ms. Callistis will do.

She takes seat across from my desk, and the interview begins.]

*Bright hair and eye colors are common on magic using species.

[-]

Q: I'm glad that you could make it here Professor. As I've said in our correspondences, I simply want to inquire about any shared history between mages and dragons. Nothing more and nothing less.

A: Thank you for this offer, but you needn't call me professor...yet. That's still a year away.

(Pause)

So...about those dragons! I do know that there are rumors of a trade of some sorts between the Arcturus based Primal Coven and the dragon known as Fafnir centuries ago, but that broke apart after Fafnir disappeared not long after making the deal. Some say he was killed by a powerful hero, others that he simply left.

Like you, most of what I know comes from old legends. I know some witches hunted smaller dragons for their scales, and there are some stuffed bodies of some dwarf species in prominent offices of mages and in the hunting lodges of some senior Wild Hunters...but other then that, I've never seen a dragon in the flesh myself.

I mean, I've seen kaiju. I'm sure you've heard about that giant fight in Crete five years back. I was there, I saw it all. It's...not an experience I'd like to go through again any time soon.

So, aside from the stories and the bones I've seen at displays, I don't have much to say about actual dragons but-

(Subject pauses) I may have...actually, there is something I might, know from when I was a kid, but it is rather, how should I put it, personal-

Q: Look if this is getting to close to home, we can take a break for an hour if you need it.

A: (Subject pauses to compose herself)-Never mind. I'm ready.

It involves my grandmother.

Her name was Char. She was a prominent professor back at the same academy my mother went to. She was not only a teacher, but a magical researcher. Strict and not afraid to yell at her students whenever they made an error. But in the end, not single class of hers failed. It all payed. But that was before...(Pause) There was an accident during my mother's final year.

Grandmother was in a lab, one where she was studying flesh from Yggdrasil itself, trying to figure out how the magic generating ability would work in the right conditions. Something went wrong, a valve misplaced or potion swapped with something more reactive by mistake...but there was an explosion. The Yggdrasil flesh boiled down into plasma and splashed onto her face, some of it was ingested by her.

She survived, there were minor burns, but from then on she was never the same.

She suddenly gained an obsession with dragons. Species, range, old legends...you name it. She was an expert...and it consumed her utterly. She began "dragon-proofing" our family home with special metals on the roof walls that could resist (pauses) not heat oddly enough, but lightning.

Her room piled up with books, both on myths and on fossil records. Aside from defense, she turned to talk about killing dragons. "We die or they die" she would say to every inquiry on the matter. Swords, axes, even guns were buried in a locked chest for the time. Stranger still, at nights she would hide under a tarp and stare ahead into the night sky with a telescope, telling anyone who asked that she was "Keeping watch."

Whatever was in that lab accident, that liquified Yggdrasil material, whatever fused with it...had turned a professional with a record into an obsessed woman who barely resembled the esteemed professor she once was.

My mother, Helen, she had to take charge of the family at that point. Had to claw my family out of the humiliation and the shame.

From then on, while mages would still use the leylines, never again was an experiment on studying Yggdrasil itself done on such a wide scale. That's how major the incident was.

When I was born, Grandmother lived in the same house as us. Her obsession had calmed a bit, but even so she would still go on about her newfound hatred and fear of dragons whenever anyone asked.

Most called it insanity.

Char called it "Insight."

But, despite what I heard about her personality and how I saw her react towards visitors that refused to take her claims of impending doom seriously, she was always nice to me. Perhaps she saw potential in me, or maybe, just maybe there was one last ounce of sanity left that saw a reminder of her younger, saner self in me.

When mother was gone on her many duties as a mage, grandmother would read to me about various legends.

You can probably guess where these conversations went.

She'd show me how to hold a spear, tell me the best ways to stab with a sword. What kind of magic to know in the future, to fight or flee. The "Siegfried Special" she'd call it. How to hold my head to the side in case any blood splashed in my face should I stab a dragon. I was really young back then, it must have seemed like great fun to me, but looking back...

(Subject pauses for a good while)

Mother would have never let these lessons happen. Now knowing what I know, there were so many times I could have potentially gotten hurt-nevermind, I have to continue.

(Pause. Glasses of water are brought in for us both.)

One night in February, when I had just turned ten, I remember waking up and seeing her right outside the window under the moonlight, staring up ahead with that scope of hers at the night sky.

Mother was gone on a business trip for the week. It was just me and her until mother would return in the morning.

My curiosity was peaked. I went downstairs, walked out the door. I asked her what she was doing, having never seen her like this. It had been years since she had done an all night stargazing.

"Looking for dragons." she said. Being ten, I asked her what finally came to my mind. "Why?"

"Because we have to find the dragons before they find us." She said. I remember looking around, confused. "But grandmother, no dragons have ever come around here for years!" I think I may have reached a bit of a breaking point. "You've looked and looked and searched and searched but no dragons have ever appeared at the Academy or at home! Why, why are you so obsessed with them? The dragons, they are all dead like you read to me! They are just bones in the ground! Why can't you just rest-"

I'm not sure what else I said, but I remember being really out of breath. She paused then smiled.

"No. Not the dragons here. Never the dragons, " She held a hand to the ground at her feet. "Here. I was never talking about the dragons on this world."

This was quite a surprise to me. In just a few sentenecs, my perspective of her changed.

I finally spoke up again as I sat down next to her. "If not here then...where? Where are the dragons that scare you so much?" She shook her head and handed the scope to me.

"I don't fear them. I hate them. Just like he does." Slowly, she lifted a bony finger. "Not the dragons from here."

She leaned on a nearby tree, her finger pointing at the night sky full of stars above us.

"From There" she whispered, her arm slowly lowering.

I grew confused, lifting up the scope and looking at the stars above. "Where Cha-grandmother, what do the stars have to do with dragons?"

I slowly turned to her still form, no response. Turning back, I looked up at the stars, trying to spot whatever it was that got her attention as if in a trance before I turned back to her. When no response came, I thought she had fallen asleep.

I shook her with no response.

It would take awhile for me to realize that she was dead.

Her heart had stopped mere seconds after her last words.

She had died right in front of me after finally managing to give vital clue about her dragons I didn't even know it for more then five minutes.

(Subject pauses, then drains her glass. She sets it down with audible force before speaking in a firmer tone then before.)

Perhaps my grandmother really was crazy. Maybe she genuinely did get insight into the ways of the universe from the tainted concoction that splashed into her face.

Whatever her personal dragons were-

(Subject pauses and stands up before heading over to the nearby window. Pausing, she looks through the window as if up at the sky from my position)

-They weren't from this world, but somewhere farther away.

[Thus ends one of the most tense moments of my career. A story that stared off innocently enough ended in an intense manner. Ms. Callista gave me permission to publish this interview, and as a thanks I've changed the names of the mentioned relatives for the sake of discretion and respect towards real issues. I wish her luck and an untroubled teaching career in the days ahead.]

[Hopefully her tenure will be a peaceful one.]