I started to shake my head then stopped and changed to a nod. My father had no clan, so I hadn’t given the contradiction much thought. Now that she mentioned it, though, it did seem odd. Her words also reminded me of something my father had said a long, long time ago. So long that I couldn’t remember the exact conversation anymore, but I think it was in response to a very young me asking how I could be his daughter if I wasn’t a dragon. He’d replied that he was happy I wasn’t a dragon because all dragons were murderers. If I’d been his real daughter, he would have had to live in fear that I’d grow up to kill him and take his power just as he’d done to his own father. But I wasn’t a dragon. I was human, and that meant he was free to treasure me.
Those words made me cringe now, but at the time I’d thought it was his way of saying he loved me. That I was his child in spirit, if not in blood. I’m sure my father would have called that idea sentimental garbage, but in the context of what the Spirit of Dragons had just said, it made me wonder. “Could I be feeding his fire?”
The spirit sighed. “Thirty minutes ago, I’d have called that nonsense,” she admitted. “But I am the most attuned being on any dimensional plane when it comes to dragon fire, and I can’t feel so much as an ember smoldering in the Dragon of Korea. He should be ash, and yet he lives, which means something that’s not his fire must be keeping him going. It’s the only explanation, and you’re literally the only thing around, so it has to be you.”
“But I’m human,” I said, stating the obvious.
“I’m aware,” the spirit said flatly. “But clan is more about mindset than blood. Case in point, the infamous Marlin Drake is the head of a clan of clanless dragons. The whole thing’s a violent hodgepodge of misfits who’ve been kicked out of their own families for various reasons. None of them are related, yet Drake still manages to draw power from his position at the top, so it’s clearly possible.”
“But they’re all still dragons,” I argued. “I’m not.”
“Again, I’m aware,” she said. “But I think that’s actually working to your advantage here. Small and weak though you may be, humanity’s superpower is the ability to grab magic from one place and move it somewhere else. Everyone knows Yong considers you his daughter, because that’s what he called you when he took his case to the Peacemaker, and a dragon as stodgy and proud as he is wouldn’t use that word unless he meant it. Likewise, you’ve only called him by his actual name once since I arrived. Normal human servants address their dragon by title, but you call Yong ‘father’ and ‘Dad’ without even thinking about it. It’s natural for you, just as calling you daughter is natural for him. It’s obvious you both think of each other as family on a deep, reflexive level. Now combine that with the draconic ability to draw magic from clan ties and the reflexive human instinct to shove magic at anything they consider important, and what have you got?”
I held my breath, barely daring to hope. “You think I’m pushing magic into my dad.”
“I don’t think,” the god said haughtily. “I know. It’s the only way any of this makes sense. Humans are constantly sending magic into things they value. That’s how spirits like myself and the DFZ are made. When enough people all start believing in the same thing, their subconsciouses fill that idea with magic until it reaches critical mass and poof! A god is born. This same phenomenon also works on a small scale. Because you are human, all the love and worry you feel for your father translates directly into power. Power he is capable of receiving because he considers you clan. Neither of these factors would be enough on their own, but put them together, along with what is clearly an off-the-charts ability to move magic on your part, and you’ve got just enough oomph to keep an otherwise dead dragon alive! Technically. He’s basically on life support, but you get the idea.”
I thought I did. “Let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” I said, pressing my hands to my temples as if I could physically squish all the whirling ideas together in my head. “My worrying about my dad caused me to send him magic subconsciously, and he was able to pick that magic up because he considers me his actual daughter.” When she nodded, I broke into a grin. “So does that mean I can revive him by channeling more magic in?”
My excitement grew with every word. It had never occurred to me to try just shoving power into my dad. Living things usually didn’t work that way. If you could heal someone just by filling them up with magic, hospitals would be out of business. Ditto for funeral homes. As always, though, dragons were different. If I’d been keeping Dad alive all these weeks with just my subconscious, imagine what I could do if I actually paid attention! Dad was huge, but I had a god on my side. The DFZ wanted him gone as much as I did. If she volunteered her magic, I could funnel it into him and have Dad back on his feet in a week. He’d be saved, and I’d be free! But even as these wild thoughts were rushing through my mind, the Spirit of Dragons was shaking her head.
“I can see the conclusions you’re jumping to,” she warned. “But it’s not going to be that simple. The fact that this is working at all is a miracle all by itself, but you can’t just shove magic into a dragon.”
“Why not? There’s tons of records of mages pulling magic out of dragons.
