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As I would not throw the cat, no matter how much Phillip wanted revenge for his interrupted sleep, I went over to the circle, eased the fluffy baby off my shoulder, and set him in the ring. The instant I released him, Monster vanished in a red glow. Little flickers of golden light danced in the luminescence lingering in the air, although after a few moments, the colors dimmed and faded away. “I hope he’s all right.”
“Monster is a conjuration given life. He was the gift of a necromancer grateful for a second lease on life, so when he saw a dying kitten, he created a healthy body for him and transferred his soul. That kitten is now Monster.”
I went cold at the mention of necromancy and that someone had broken through the divide between life and death. “He is alive?”
“He is as alive as you and I, and he will bleed if you cut him. He ages, just like any other cat, although he is a great deal more durable. The soul ages, and when his soul ages to its predestined limit, Monster will move on. All the necromancer did was change the date in an act of kindness. Consider it healing if necromancy bothers you. Monster’s original body was dying, so the necromancer conjured a body and gave it life, and so Monster lives. Perhaps in a slightly different form, but he is a cat living his best cat life.”
“I had no idea necromancers could do that,” I confessed.
“Necromancy is misunderstood, although we can all agree that one, perhaps, tested the boundaries of life and death a little too much for anyone’s comfort. Soul swapping is not a new concept, Kinsley. It has been around for a long time. The dying body did not require a soul, so all the necromancer did was give the kitten a little bit of a nudge and end Monster’s suffering through giving him a new body. Perhaps conjured, but souled. Cedrick informed me you had misgivings about the conjured animals that die.”
I wondered what game the dragon played, but I nodded.
He spoke the truth.
“They do not have souls and do not live. The bodies do not feel pain. They feel nothing. View the conjurations as models, elaborate models that could, if a soul were provided, begin to live, like Monster lives because a conjured body was available when his died. You do not view Monster as an aberration now, do you?”
“Of course not.”
“I hope this puts you at ease. Every conjuration, until the moment a soul is provided, is an empty shell. They are possibilities, and nothing more than that. As they lack souls, they rot, for they are not alive and were never alive. They have no capacity for anything, and they do not even breathe upon conjuration. There is no soul to provide the spark of life. And while we can conjure many beautiful things with our magic, we cannot conjure souls.”
I tensed, as something about the dragon’s word implied they had not conjured souls yet.
“Don’t look so alarmed, Kinsley. We’ve no interest in conjuring souls. There is too much risk involved with pursuing such things. When not even necromancers will toy with that magic, we are wise to follow their example.”
“Have I passed whatever test you just put me through?” I asked, deciding I would worry about the issue of conjurations another time.
A titanium dragon sharing space with me counted as a far more immediate problem.
“As a matter of fact, yes. Go ahead and open the carrier. The animal inside is quite young, so you will have to be her mother for a while. She’s already been taught her manners, however, so you won’t have problems on that front.”
“Her manners?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
As only a fool irritated a dragon, I went down to a knee in front of the carrier, popped open the door, and placed a hand on the ground so I could peer inside.
A tiny golden flicker of light hovered in the back of the cage. Puzzled, I eased my hand inside.
The ball of light, reminding me of a firefly in a way, retreated. I froze and waited, wondering what sort of animal I beheld. Patience paid off, as the flickering light eased forward and investigated my hand. Living warmth touched my skin, and I kept still so I wouldn’t startle her.
My knee and back protested my pose, but I refused to move, aware of how animals needed time to adapt, especially when they weren’t under the influence of over-enthusiastic dragons and their magic.
The light brightened, and the golden light made way for red fur frosted with white, oversized kitten ears, a fluffy tail, and tiny paws. Unlike cats, the animal’s paws were a glistening bright red, reminding me of gemstones.
The animal nuzzled my hand, which I took as an invitation to pet her.
I could lose many an hour stroking her plush coat. “What is she, Phillip?”
“Garnet is a carbunclo, and she was a gift from a Chilean ruby dragon for a favor my family had done for hers. Garnet is a great honor, but we do not have the appropriate temperament for her, so I inquired if we might bequeath our gift to you, who has shown much kindness without receiving sufficient kindness in return. In a matter of souls, you are unbalanced, for you have helped many more souls—few have helped you.”
“I was unaware that titanium dragons were concerned with such spiritual matters,” I admitted. “I thought titanium dragons were more of the fighters of the dragon world.”
Like their namesake metal, titanium dragons took being tough to extremes, difficult to kill at best. They died like other species, but most perished from old age rather than injury.
It took a lot of work to injure a titanium dragon to the point of death.
Phillip chuckled. “You are not wrong, although we are strategists as much as we are fighters. Our human children are harder to kill, and they’re more likely to survive the transformation from dragon-kin or human to dragon. We are like the metal we are named for, strong in many ways, but we are also unyielding. Garnet needs someone with a kinder spirit.”