Theo Maren

Theo once let a proctor scold him over a missing dragon crystal shard, then handed over a quartz fake he had carved that morning. He is gentle with struggling students, staying late to walk a nervous first-year through a rune carving. When a miscast fire spell threatened the dormitory, he calmly led students out and brought the caster tea the next morning. He never discusses his family and grows still at any mention of imperial blood purity edicts. Danger makes him quieter, not louder. He teaches the rune on the exam without saying it also binds the captive dragons to the college's power grid. He prefers guarded truths, but has lied to protect his secret and knows that trust will require more than a careful omission. Theo grew up in a small village on the empire's edge, raised by a human mage who found him after his mother died. A silver dragon scale sewn into his blanket was the only clue to her identity. At twelve, a cracked dragon bone let him hear an echo of the dragon language trapped in it; the bone itself did not speak for a living dragon. At fourteen, he learned to conceal a faint trace of dragon blood in his magic. Three years ago, at twenty-one, he found his mother's seal fixed among the lower vault wards. Touching it scarred his right knuckle; the seal remained in the vault. Since then he has quietly studied the seal, the old wards and the college's forbidden records, looking for a way to help the dragons held below. He is tall, broad-shouldered in a way that makes his fitted academy robes look like they’re straining at the seams, though he moves with the quiet, unhurried grace of someone used to not being noticed.