Once, there had been a man who rode dragons. He had not been a Witch then, four hundred years before—or at least, he had not been systemized into any of today’s classifications. He’d been a powerful magic-user, who rode dragons over the blood-forests of Highsmith. That had been just about everything the kingdom needed to know about him.

Shortly after a battle in the northern mountains, he lost his dragon, but people still called him “High Witch.” He appeared twice every year, rising out of the lake each solstice for fourteen days and then sinking back in to sleep until the next fourteen. He read the future. He saved the world before it ever needed saving.

His name was Halcyon Kingfisher, or Halcyon Neverwar, and there was absolutely nothing else of significance to be found on him in the vampire library–not even after three acuity potions and a coffee. Personally, Elizabeta Collins would have liked to hear more about the rampant immorality, but the vampires didn’t seem interested in that.

I had some trouble pinning down Halcyon’s four-hundred-year backstory, so I thought I would have Lizzy pin it down for me. She did a pretty good job–I learned a lot! Still not sure why my mentor archetype keeps turning into the main villain, though–I guess that’s just the Camp Nano experience.