“A Scaler,” Acacia repeated, trying to puzzle out what that could mean. All she could come up with was the disgusting, horny face of Gullen before he bit her. And from the worried glances that passed between Lifea and Bloome’s faces, Scalers weren’t good news.

            “Scalers are possessed dragons,” Bloome explained. “Dragons can be possessed when someone takes control of their mind. But once the person loses focus on the dragon’s mind, the Scaler will die. That’s why possessing dragons became illegal, even though few can perform the trick.” 

            “The Scalers’ scales turn purple, their bite turns venomous, and the amount of venom there is in one bite—and the cause of it—depends on who possess the Scaler’s mind,” Lifea added, tossing her pink-green-white-streaked hair. “For this Gullen Scaler who poisoned you, he must’ve been possessed by a dark source, like the shadows. Because of that dark magic that flowed through your blood, the shadows at Sunhilde’s edge were confused and couldn’t detect you as easily as they usually do, since you reek of shadow as well as magi-people.”

            Acacia squished the information into her brain, forcing herself to replay the terrifying moment when the shadow had stood in the clearing, sniffing the air with an invisible nose to find them. Even though the shadow had sped up to Claris, Annice and Acacia once it saw them, she was pretty sure it had been muddled before.

            Speaking of which, she had already forgotten about her friends again. Lifea and Bloome seemed smart and trust-able enough to know that capturing anyone from another species without valid reason was against the multi-speciesial laws.

            She needed to know more first, then maybe she’d get her and her friends back to school. Acacia turned her attention to Lifea and Bloome. “I still don’t get it,” Acacia admitted. “What does all this have to do with me and my friends? And look, I’m all healed now, so can’t you just send us back to our school with a teleportal?”

            “The thing is, we want to,” Lifea said, “except that hundreds of elves bitten by Scalers have perished. Magi-people, Aerials and Theodores too. So, the question is, how are you still standing healthy and strong right now? Is there a vaccine for the Scaler poison we don’t know about?” She demanded.

            “No, no! There isn’t. I didn’t know what Scalers were until today,” Acacia reminded Lifea. “Plus, it could have been a dragon possessed by someone else that isn’t powerful enough for the Scaler’s venom to be deadly.”

            “But there’s only one person in the entire of Dyia that still possesses dragons, the Shadowness, queen of the shadows,” Bloome argued. “And so far, every elf has been killed when bitten. And depending on those bite marks on your wrist, the Scaler who bit you was the commander of the Shadowness’s Scaler regiment, Commander Gullen.”

            Acacia stared at her injured wrist, wondering how this injury had riled up so much panic. Gullen was a completely normal, average dragon, performing a dance with his troupe of dragons at Lava Lake when he’d transported them into the middle of the ocean, dropped them off, bit Acacia, and somehow—by luck or anything else—Annice, Claris and Acacia had all ended up on the same island—Shadow Isle—encountered some shadows and still managed to escape. And Acacia had been too caught up in the shadows’ attack that she had forgotten.

            Dyia, the world of magic, was created out of two solar systems. Skysun and Moonstar. Dyia’s School of Magic was on Moonstar, and Hillary Hills should be on Moonstar too. But only the species from the sky, the Aerials and Theodores, Gardeners plus the Magipeople lived on Moonstar.

            The elves and underwater species were confined to Skysun. So, she needed to clarify, “Teleportals are only used to get from one location to another, right?” Acacia started to pace.

            “Yeah. But they can only travel within one solar system. If you want to get to another solar system, you’ll have to use a Solark to travel there,” Lifea tapped her fingers on the wooden desk. “I was in the Hillary Hill’s Lava Lake when Gullen transported us here. And the Shadow Isle is on Skysun, so the only way Gullen could have come here was to create a Solark,” Acacia tried.

            Thankfully, Bloome got it. “There’s no way to build a Solark, especially by an animal, in fast motion,” he said. Lifea gasped. “That makes so much sense!”

            Actually, none of this made sense.

            "We need more information," Bloome conceded. "We should pay a visit to Elvina's Royal Library ASAP." 

            "Y'know, you're talking about all this like I'm an expert at all things elf. And I still don't totally understand everything you went over with me," Acacia pointed out.

            "Another reason why we should go to Elvina's Library," Lifea stalked to the door. "I'll get your buddies. Wait here," was apparently all the answers Acacia was going to get. 

            Plus, a visit to a Royal Library couldn't be so bad. It would give her the chance to find out more about Teleportals and Solarks, dragons and Scalers, and basically how Moonstar and Skysun built Dyia.

            What was the worst that could happen?

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