The talon sat heavy in both his hands, and Neve still did not know what to do with it.
Everyone below the podium was staring. He could feel it even without looking. The quality of attention from an entire festival gathering that had just watched a dragon lord pull his own nail off and hand it to someone as a gift.
He looked at Vaelthorn.
"What exactly am I supposed to do with this?" he said.
Vaelthorn settled back in the chair with the easy posture of someone who had given a gift and was watching the recipient figure it out.
"Many things," he said. "It can be used in healing elixirs. Ground down, it accelerates recovery faster than most medicines." He looked at the talon. "It can be used as a weapon... the edge holds better than any stone or bone you'll find here." A pause. "And since I'm a fire dragon, if you learn to channel it correctly, it behaves like an enchanted blade. It can produce flame on command."
Neve stared at the talon.
"Fire," he said. "From a nail."
