Chapter 29

[Belgarion213]

Now this is an interesting chapter. On the surface, not much is seemingly happening other than more and more Magicans and Dragons bonding, but the after effects of the Dragons assault on China are reverberating. The fact that the Chinese opened fire and killed women and children is quite surprising (you would think SOMEBODY has a iota of PR training, though I suppose in the Earth Bond version of China, they relied on their internet scrubbers and control over the media so much that they never needed it).

I'm kind of surprised that Kammie was one of the dragons chosen. Kal very much was against any favouritism to even department members because of the danger of tearing the Darth Dragon society apart but here he seems fine with it. Is Kal just being a hypocrite here?

I like the information we are getting about Water Dragon culture in this chapter and it explains in some ways why Earth and Water dragons got on. Earth Dragons are, or were, very sensitive about their lack of magic, and Water Dragons culture of not bragging meant that they didn't rub their abilities in the Earth Dragon's face. Chromatics on the other hand have their entire status based on their abilities with magic and thus probably rubbed the Earth Dragons raw by simply existing.

Kal's thought field agents kind of surprised me. IIRC, part of the reason that older earth dragons couldn't be field agents was because they got to heavy, even in their altered form, as per Kal's putting holes in the grass in chapter 1 because of his weight. With the bonded Earth Dragons having some ability to negate their weight, it might be possible for a bonded Earth Dragon to still walk around in human form without putting holes in concrete etc, though of course will the council risk a Earth Dragon is another question.'

I'm kind of missing our First of her Class/Priscila and the Eater Dragon girl. Kammie's fine but I kind of liked those two more than her, and I wnat to see Kal hang out with his best friend and that Chromatic some more.

[Rakshasa claw]

The young age field agents was about having a realistic size. They used the hider amulets to look human-ish, but when they get older they start approaching 7-8 ft tall which is somewhat odd if not downright impossible/unique for humans. Thus they are way to obvious to be used as operatives. The punching holes in the ground is simply an additional unfortunate side effect of weighing so much.

China does similar things in real life, it's not like Fel created those plans... his might be a bit more extreme or successful than real China but I doubt it's off by much.

As far as them "choosing" Kammi... well yes. He is being a bit hypocritical because it benefits him to not have his lady annoying that she has to wait. However, his bigger concern was empowering only a few dragons and not all of them. So having her cut the line is a much smaller problem because they still intend to empower everyone.

I think we won't see a lot of non-Earth Dragon or human interactions until after the summit and once they've managed to get one of the teacher Earth Dragons empowered and properly trained to replace Kell as the prime magic teacher for them.

Edit: Also, note that Prisma is probably busy as hell finishing her studies at the academy and working with the Chief and the Sages.

[SYED]

Chromatics likely publish all their spells. Water dragons might not publicly spread their spells, but likely freely share amongst their pod. I can see fire dragons either hoard their spells or boast about them to others. I have no idea how air dragon would practice. They should attempt to collect together all known spells. While alot of them are highly specialized, they could be reworked and adapted for new and different uses. That spell to repair kelp, could be used on other types of plants for example.

While fire dragon magic is offensive in nature, there must be some constructive uses for it. Its likely only these types of magic shared with humans as they introduce magicians back into the world.

While older earth dragons are too big to pass as human, this compressed body would make it easier to pass amongst humans openly. The humanoid form mgiht be more public friendly. Instead of giant lizards, they would simply be giants.

We have yet to see what boon kell recieved for participtation in the ritual. I am hoping for something really cool. I am wondering if it will be consistant, or depends on the magics involved.

I wonder what the longterm concequences of all earth dragons emitting a life field on the island at the same time.

[Rakshasa claw]

Oh I agree the hiders could be useful for being among humans. I was just noting that the limitations of the hiders are the reason they used young earth drakes as agents and hence why Kell will still be rotated out soon.

[SYED]

The boons might be other magical biological adaptions. Say the immunities, manipulation of elements and the breath weapons.

[drowsy19]

So I’ve been re reading earth bond and I had a thought... how do dragons milk cows?

[SYED]

Hiders not only partially shrunk dragons, they created a more humanoid form. When human deal with dragons, a tiny bit of the brain is thinking giant lizard with teeth. A hide would more human, even if it can negate sheer size. So people would feel safer dealing with simple Giants. I wonder what other types of form could a hider create. I am imagining some kind of aquatic or semi aquatics creatures. Forms more suited for environments than a human being. I doubt a flight capable form is possible, but something that can scal mountains might be.

Earth dragons can manipulate their claws to deal with delicate tech, failing that I wonder if they use some kind of Milker machine.

Say the boons are valuable enough, I wonder if they have a list of useful rituals that could perform. With the revelation earth dragons are the source of magic, the other dragons would want any way that could make them safer, and undo how they were once treated. I suspect even though an earth dragon could go through loads of ritual, I am thinking there is a finite number of boons can a dragon receive. We know that the dragons are tethered to their humans via astrol bonds. So could they be linked to items they create, likely only those that create permanent magics. The life aura and enhanced weight loss were created by such bonds. Scions are some of their highest magics, and believed to be permanent. So similar rituals would get the best results. The thing is the individual bonds, there was a visible effect of a spike falling out. There are only 17 of them. They gained the aura effect, when the bond finished entangling.