Keman gave Dr. Jones a somewhat wicked smile, his first all day. This, at least, he could do. Dr. Jones had been the one who had been openly skeptical about magic, and now he was seeing it for the first time and the expression on his face pleased the dragon more than he would ever say. It felt kind of nice to be able to get one over on the good doctor. He held out his hand, manipulating the little light so that it bobbed closer to the rest of the group. “This is magefire,” he said proudly. “My own personal little light. They’re really simple to do; my mother uses them all over the—” cave, but that might have seemed a little strange to folk used to residing in buildings “—place where we live. Lived.” He’d run away, and now the Lair wasn’t home to him anymore. It hadn’t been in a very long time. In following her son and adopted daughter, Alara had been forced to abandon it as well, and Keman still felt a pang of guilt about that. Mother had never complained, never once even brought it up, and he’d been afraid to bring up the subject mostly because he knew he was worrying about nothing. In many ways, she’d resented the Lair just as much as he had. “They’re...really simple to make, and once they’re lit they can keep burning for decades. Back home, anyway.” Here, they lasted the night and that was it.

The whole time he was showing off, he didn’t quite look at the half-face man, instead shooting Scott a shy little smile. Scott had shown interest in magic before, and it was much easier to focus on that than admit to himself that the horrible disfigurement was making him uncomfortable. He’d seen awful burns and injuries before on the battlefield. The only difference was that this one was still alive…

“I’m Keman, by the way,” he added as an afterthought. “I’m—oh, hello, Ryuuzaki. This is getting to be quite the group.” There were five of them now. The dragon looked quizzically at Dr. Jones, silently echoing Ryuuzaki’s question. How many more could they deal with? Many more and they risked not being able to move silently enough to avoid being spotted by monsters.