SOLVED. YA Fantasy novel about a young girl who learns multiple classes of magic from an old man. [s]

[Orion]

Sorry in advance about lack of details. Listened to the audiobook around 2018, it features a young girl(the main character) around 12 years old maybe. An old man comes to town and finds her crying after some guards threatened her or hurt her. She was crying and her tear dropped down and either created or healed a lizard. Who then becomes her friend and grows into a dragon eventually. The old man, possibly named Z or ezekial, teaches her magic. They go places to learn different classes of magic, there’s nature magic I believe and I can’t recall the others. The visit mountain mystics(or something like that) and valley druids, and the forest where they live is alive and the trees fight against her and with her. The old man and her train until she is ready and then take down the leader of the city where she is from. You come to learn to that the old man is actually co creator of the city and he left years ago when the current leader pushed him out. But they go back and liberate the city. Infiltrating a magic school.

[Brenna]

Restriction in the The Rise of Magic series by C.M. Raymond?

[Orion]

Oh my lord that’s it! That’s actually it! I have been searching for almost 2 years trying to find it again. Multiple posts in Reddit groups, endless googling, and even asking librarians. And You did it. Thank you so much!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Orion.

Book 1 of The Rise of Magic series by C.M. Raymond - Brenna's find.