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Just how?

As I stood there confused and shocked, Shiloh relaxed and continued. “I don’t understand how it works but doing the spell almost killed the mage who put it on my ancestor. The seers said it had to be done.”

Probably because the seers knew how hard it would be to keep regular records intact. It took our greatest mages to put the archives together to keep our information safe and they had been a people with only a handful of adults.

They may not have felt they had another choice.

Zorin was slightly calmer with the information out there between us, but he was not a happy Daddy or a relaxed mate. “They took his magic. Ask about that, Raxius.”

Reminding myself he was not deliberately being obnoxious, I sent soothing emotions through the bond as well as a warning to help curb his impulses. Something lowered his emotions and had him nodding but I wasn’t sure what he actually felt from me.

“Shiloh?” Keeping an even tone was harder than my mates seemed to understand because my little Earthling was trying to smile sweetly at me. “What does Zorin mean?”

Zorin needed to learn to tattle in longer sentences.

“Um, I think he wants to make sure you understand that the spell uses nearly all of my internal magic that we all have.” Shiloh paused as he stood up, feeling slightly anxious again and seemingly like he wanted to wiggle.

When he was standing, he kept glancing between us as he tried to explain the depth of the problem to me. “I…I don’t do regular magic in any way because the…I guess you could call it the well of magic I can access is always nearly empty.”

Great ancestors above.

“He would be given the bulk of the knowledge as a child when his body was still forming. Our minds are not built to hold the amount of information the spell would have forced it to contain over time.” Zorin finally sounded reasonable, or at the very least not like he wanted to continue to shout orders at everyone. “And with the portal closed, it would have been even more difficult for his body to maintain the spell.”

Attempting to look positive, Shiloh widened his eyes and bounced onto his toes and then rocked back on his heels. “Yeah, I’ve felt great lately but it took me entirely too long to realize the connection.”

Tired.

Worn.

Single words flickered through the bond with Zorin but I don’t think he knew he was doing it. I didn’t get the full thought but it was enough to give me a clue about how difficult life would have been for Shiloh.

Which explained his shyness and how easily overwhelmed he was in stressful situations…as a child he would have been too tired and his mind too strained to participate in those kinds of events. Adding in the studying he must have done and that would’ve made things more difficult.

“I’m glad you are feeling better but I’m going to have additional questions on this later.” Once I could think logically and get Zorin to do the same. “Now, is there anything else important that you might have put off letting us know?”

Like anything else life-altering?

Our usually adorable mate blinked a few times before shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so.”

If the fates had a sense of humor he was going to tell us he was part alien, but like the ones in Beatrice’s stories she was still trying to hide from everyone. Klynn might have stories about romance and mate relationships, but I heard she had stories about aliens and things called tentacle monsters.

Earthlings were odd.

But they had access to interesting information.

“Then we will organize our thoughts and come back to this discussion later.” I thought it was well worded but Baldron laughed.

When Shiloh showed confusion, the ancient dragon shook his head. “Your mates are very unhappy with you, Shiloh of Earth.”

Shiloh sighed before putting on his stubborn expression. “I’m going to pretend Raxius is as relaxed as he sounds.”

“I think the English term good luck applies here.” Still looking pleased, Baldron relaxed in his chair and let out a long breath. “I have also had good luck.”

No, he had fucked with fate, as the people who spoke English would say. They might not take that literally but we did, and Baldron was in for difficulties when he finally passed to the ancestors and had to do an accounting of what he had done with everything he had been given.

“Can…” Shiloh paused before wiggling to show nerves. “Can I ask if your people were like you…smiling and laughing? Everyone is…very different.”

His smile fading, Baldron nodded slowly. “Yes, we were a lot like the other people of Earth but after we lost our children, everything changed. The one thing we did not understand was how closely our emotion and our magic are tied together. We…I think the best way to say it would be that our inner feelings became our outer expressions.”