...Dragons are essentially equal-opportunity elementals. Yet for those who studied them, their intimate association with fire was of the greatest interest. True, water wears mountains into sand and turns barren plains green, and winds carry seeds and clouds across the heavens. But fire, dangerous and transformative to its core, excites the air with magic. It’s the archetypal alchemical element, able to change the essential nature of things with a lick, to turn iron into steel and sand into glass.