Chapter 24: A Growing List
Early Afternoon - Mid Spring : Year 10 : The Nest | Home
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A disguise of light magic so inorganically perfect its deception could only be compared to invisibility—just laying my eyes on it made my brain sputter like an engine running out of gas.
And that was before Father even opened his mouth. "The longest I've had to maintain this form for was about ten months."
-Wha…- "WHAAAAT?!" My jaw instantly fell open like a weight was dropped from it.
"Haha," Mother couldn't help but laugh. "Some people live in their humanoid forms, sweetie. I can't say I understand how either, but…"
Catching her pause, Father shrugged bluntly. "It's a halfie thing. They have.. 'an affinity with humanity', I guess is a way to put it." His tongue faintly snapped as a superheated breath escaped his mouth. "Perhaps too much of an affinity…"
-Hm?- I didn't quite recognize why he spoke like he did at first, but noticing my fenririan ears flutter with question, Mother gave him a firm glance.
A glance that carried a whole conversation Krystallo and I simply couldn't hear.
"Haah…" Passing a heavy sigh, Father's face fell into his hand as if he were bracing himself before… "I suppose if there's any chance you're coming with me, you need to understand what I'm going to Kaelallan for in the first place."
My head-tilt steeped before it finally clicked. -Oh!- It was about what I had overheard earlier. -Is this about that rebellion?- My ears stood attentively as he moved to continue.
"The reason I was able to stop by was because to the west, there is a humanoid nation called the Kingdom of Kaelallan."
Hastily straightening her posture, Krystallo's eyes sprouted an intentful gleam to listen as well.
And it seemed to ease Father's tension, if only for a breath. "To keep it short for now, the half breeds we've been mentioning have been breaking Lord Bahamut's rules and using their identities as dragons to take over many human nations across the main continent, the greater section of the landmass we stand on. They've been.. unhappy with their progress in Bahamut," the continent that the dragon god, Bahamut, had isolated draconic society to, "And have taken over human nations to try and amass power and resources for the rebellion on our soil."
They were essentially a nation that was conquering others to fuel a war on another front.
"To put it simply, they are disrupting the balance we have maintained since the Golden Age of draconic society, and I need to go to Kaelallan to make sure they understand and are prepared."
My head tilt returned in a blink. "Understand to be prepared for war? Or…"
Father nodded hastily. "I have a personal relationship with the Kaelallan Royal Family from my adventuring days, so I was tasked with explaining the situation to them." He paused as he tensed and averted his eyes. "Humans are to never know of your identity as a dragon… It was one of Bahamut's most strict divine rulings.. but Kaelallan's royal family is my exception. They may be humanoid, but your father owes them his life, okay?" He spoke as if trying to reason it with Bahamut himself, clearly guilty, but.. unremorseful.
Not that I understood at the time. "I see…" -For Father to break God's will for someone… I wonder what kind of people they are.-
But after that statement, his unease.. never seemed to settle.
"Fa..ther?" I spoke so innocently it was deadly.
But he just jolted. "S-Sorry, Vasilias." Finally looking back up at me, he tensely motioned me not to worry. "It must be an attribute to your aura, it makes me feel like I'm confessing to a descendant of a divine. I don't mean to be tense."
-A divine..?- My mind ran wild watching him fall into a nervous sweat.
But before anyone else could say anything, Mother continued for him. "A divine as in someone close to Bahamut, spiritually. But this isn't that.. I don't think…" She spoke somewhat hastily. "Anyway, it is likely your aura's attribute."
My head fell as my fluffy tail curiously curled. "Aura can have attributes too?"
Mother was quick to nod. "Just differently from mana."
"How so? Like an effect instead of ability?"
Her expression instantly washed with a warm pride. "Correct! The more pure-blooded the dragon, the more prominent their aura's 'attribute'. Mine, for example, is just cold." Concentrating some of her aura in front of her, a frosty fog formed. "Some auras are hot, some moist, some soft. But for you, it's likely something called 'majesty'."
"Majesty?" My expression scrunched as a little worry mixed with my confusion.
"It's only ever been known to belong to much older, stronger dragons or gods, but think of it as an attribute that's almost numbing."
My confusion thickened. -I'm.. not following…-
She didn't wait though. "To those who either don't understand it's your aura, or understand you are not a threat, it gives a tranquil and almost intoxicating feeling—like a comforting blanket. However, to those who perceive you as a threat, it's suffocating. Instead of a blanket, it's like the sky is full of blades." Turning her eyes to Father, her tongue sharpened.
Not that he didn't understand. "Honey, you can't blame me for that!" His manly, elven form shrank in a blink. "Did it not take you time to get used to it too?"
"Huff-" But she just gave a snarky breath as she turned away, not agreeing or disagreeing. "Anyway, even though I'm not convinced that's the exact attribute, it's something to be aware of, especially when interacting with people you don't know."
Father was quick to try and shift gears. "R-Right, you need to learn to control your aura somewhat before you can go with me to Kaelallan. Letting your aura run wild is just asking for trouble…"
It sounded so simple, but my expression fell with a wash of anxiety almost instantly. "I have to control my aura while maintaining this form?!"
Smiling as if having to hold in a laugh, Mother nodded innocently. "Even if you don't have full control, you need to be able to keep enough off people for the attribute to not really affect people or it'll cause problems."
-R..Right, but…- "In two months?"
They both nodded in unison before Father added, "You also need to learn how to fight in your humanoid form."
My expression darkened with another drop.
"And learn to control your strength."
Like watching your boss throw more papers onto your desk despite already having too much to complete before the deadline, I felt myself break into a nervous sweat.
But in the end, if I wanted to go with Father, I didn't have a choice.
Not that it was something I could rush.
Eventually wrapping up our conversation and subsequently returning to my draconic form with Mom and Dad, evening rolled around, and dinner followed.
Things had greatly calmed down by then, with conversation turning more idle like a family at a dinner table, but I was hardly taking the moment to rest.
Spending every waking moment looking through my aura, I tried to hone in on that sense, refine the image it painted, and start getting more used to it.
But even the simple things, like recognizing the 'signatures' of Mom or Dad's aura, was an almost insurmountable challenge. -And I've only got two months…-
That amount of time was going to pass the moment I blinked.
But, instead of feeling hopeless, I kept going, and used whatever progress I made as a motivational anchor to keep going.
Even when I was progressing far more rapidly than my mind told itself it was.
-Hm..?- Feeling something almost humming inside my bison as we ate, my attention rapidly shifted before I moved my paw up and flicked its skull. *THWACK*
My claw simply carved through it, splintering bone and emulsifying brain before revealing a blue-ish green sphere beneath… -Oh.-
It was a mana core—the accumulation of the bison's mana. -Huh… With my aura it feels.. smooth…- Like a calm surface of a morning lake. -Is that.. its presence?-
Comparing it to Mother and Father's auras, they were full of unique 'ripples', disturbances, and flows. -But, is that just because they are alive.. or is that what Mother was referring to when she said everyone has a unique 'signature' to their aura?-
Giving it some idle thought, I gently pulled the core out of the fleshy pool before popping it in my mouth like a mint.
…A mint that Father saw as a suicide pill. "V-VASILIAS?!" Jumping up with a jolt of his wings, he was instantly consumed by panic. "Q-QUICKLY SPIT THAT OUT!"
But as I cringed like I had licked something I wasn't supposed to, Mother caught him. "Calm down, honey. He eats them all the time."
"H-Huh?!" Not that it helped Father's stress.
"He ate one when he was preparing for his first dragon sleep, and he's grown a taste for them ever since."
"Blegh…"
Watching me spit it out with a disgusted look, her snout fell awkwardly. "S..sort of…"
-Why was this one so bitter?- Quickly taking a big bite from the bison, I grabbed the core again with the forked end of my tongue before swallowing it all like a shot of alcohol with a chase. "Normally they taste better than that…"
However, the moment it hit my stomach, the same, euphoric ripple of mana I knew moved through my chest.
"I just feel better after eating them, so I take them whenever we find one." -I wonder why the taste was so different despite it feeling the same as other cores…-
Father hardly understood though, continuing to look at me like I was a magician drinking poison.
At least until I changed subjects.
Feeling the cool wave move through my body and ripple through my aura like a wave of cognition, I felt something like an echo from the farthest edge of my aura, way outside of my perception. -Woah… My aura spans that far..?-
It was almost fifty meters off my scales—way beyond what I could possibly read or control how I knew.
But it did make me curious. "Is controlling my aura like I would mana in a spell the only way to control it?"
Mother was quick to shake her head. "Not always. If you're just trying to do something simple like pull it in, you can grab it through your reserve."
-Through my reserve..?- It was.. a puzzling suggestion. -But to almost speak of it like another limb…- Like another arm or tail… -I just.. need.. to grab it…-
"Hooh…" Closing my eyes in hopes of better focusing on my aura's image, I reduced the detail of the image as much as possible—until my surroundings were just a blurry mess of undefined shapes—before… *Vwoom*
In a single breath, as I tensed what felt like a muscle detached from my body, my aura stilled with a forced grip.
It was shaky and inconsistent, even in my draconic form, but… -I.. see…- For bigger, cruder movements, I seemed to be able to control it not like a cloud of mana, but like a muscle. -So.. if I need to keep it off people, should I try to just suck it in..?-
I knew I couldn't reabsorb my aura, but… -What if I just pulled it really close to my scales?-
Firming my grip, my aura vibrated, almost like it was quivering before… *KwwwwoooOOOOOM*
Like it was being crushed by a hydraulic press, my aura squeezed toward my scales.. thickening.. vibrating…
Until at the final moment, when my skull felt like it was splitting from 'flexing' that imaginary muscle so hard.. I opened my eyes in a cold sweat to find a layer of color wrapped around me…
I had successfully pulled a majority of my aura to my scales.. something like eighty percent of it.. but within that dozen-centimeter-thick layer, ebbs and flows of blue, green, and purple littered the air like miniature northern lights.
I looked like a beacon…
And even worse.. with every passing moment, the growing pressure made it harder and harder to hold.
-T..That.. is a problem…-
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