Dragons

Dragons are a flying species from Paegeia whose lives extend beyond their homeland: they travel between worlds, work at airports in human form, and are subject to formal border controls. In Elena’s observations, their existence is at once extraordinary and routine. They are seen overhead, encountered in systems of travel and security, and even present in the food habits of dragon society.

Flight and Everyday Presence

Dragons are not the only beings Elena sees flying. In the enormous building she enters, a Raider—a snowboard-and-skateboard-like contraption propelled by a jet flame—sweeps close to her head. She has grown accustomed to seeing Raiders floating around, although not to nearly being struck by one. Sammy explains that the craft are called Raiders and require a test and license to fly. Elena’s comparison is pointed: flying on dragons already seemed remarkable, and the Raiders make the surrounding world feel more crowded with ways to take to the air.

The comparison does not make dragons seem ordinary. Rather, it places them within a society where flight has more than one form: it can belong to a living creature or to a licensed flying device. The near collision leaves Elena briefly startled, while her growing familiarity with the Raiders gives way to awe at the broader reality of flight. Dragons are part of that reality, though the account does not describe their anatomy or explain how they fly.

Travel, Human Form, and Border Controls

Dragons travel between Paegeia and the world beyond it. Lucille explains that more than five thousand Enchanted elevators provide routes to destinations inside Paegeia and outside it; the green tubes lead beyond the border. According to Lucille, dragons in their human form work at airports on the other side. Her account comes through Will, the dragon who accompanied Lucille’s husband, Ettienne, on his first trip there. The dragons’ presence at airports makes them participants in the infrastructure of travel, not merely visitors passing through it.

Crossing the border is regulated. Lucille says that every dragon from Paegeia must be registered before entering the world on the other side, and that dragons carry passports and other countries’ identification documents in case they are asked to prove who they are. These procedures place dragon travel within a system of documentation familiar from human travel, while underscoring that a dragon’s identity may need official verification.

Inspection provides a more troubling answer to Elena’s question about how attendants know a traveler is really a dragon. Lucille explains that dragons are thoroughly searched when they travel to the other side. She traces the practice to an earlier attempt by a human to enter while disguised by a spell that made the person appear to be a dragon. The Wall disintegrated the intruder, and attendants began searching every dragon. The account makes the scrutiny a consequence of attempted deception and the Wall’s lethal response; the inspection is not presented as a casual formality but as a safeguard against someone crossing under a false identity.

Bonds and Partnerships

Dragons’ connections with humans do not all take the same form. Will is Ettienne’s dragon, but Lucille says they had not shared a bond; instead, they had teamed up a long time ago. That distinction presents companionship as possible without the specific bond the story names. Will’s role in the account is also practical: his first journey beyond Paegeia gives Lucille information about dragons working at airports, connecting an individual partnership to the wider movement of dragons across borders.

Food and Sensory Culture

Dragons also appear in Elena’s account through Fire-powder, a condiment used in their meals and drinks. Elena knows that it is dangerous to humans, though she is unsure how dangerous. The seasoning makes dragon food taste as if it is literally on fire, and dragons are described as addicted to it, like cats to catnip. This detail offers a compact contrast between species: a familiar act of seasoning food becomes a source of danger to humans and intense appeal to dragons. The book does not specify the condiment’s ingredients or the precise effects of exposure, but establishes that dragon tastes and human safety do not neatly coincide.