Music for today:
maybe tomorrow
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Chapter 506: Normality
Late Evening - Mid Fall : Year 39 : Poseidon, Draconic Continent
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*Wooooom* The mana in the cavern was gentle, warm, and caressing that evening—holding me as I laid beside Hera, running my wing's spur across the glass-like crystals coating her scales.
It had been a.. unique few hours... Even long after 'it' had ended, our tails remained wound together, and our words remained unspoken.
We merely.. basked in each other's company. In the warmth we brought one another, and in the comfort our presences granted—resting our snouts where we shared breaths while we toyed with our wings in the air between us.
"So..." Though, while the silence seemed like it'd last forever, Hera did eventually break it—stretching her wing out over the space between us to shower me with it's mana-tinted glimmer. "What do you think happened to me..?" Speaking so softly that her words blended with the ambiance of the cavern, her eyes drifted up to her wing. "What is going to happen to me when these crystals fade..?"
Rocking my head to the side to move my eyes up as well, I paused.. not to think, but to merely observe…
To watch as the ebbs and flows within the fur-like crystals coating her wing continued to ever-so-slowly thin. "I'm not sure..." They were beautiful beyond words, but.. similarly fleeting. "It's hard to know for certain..."
After disintegrating her reserve to try and unify her soul, I had cast her into the aquifer, hoping the surplus of mana would keep her alive while her soul and reserve reformed themselves.
However, while it did in fact sustain her flesh, unify, and cleanse her soul, it also changed something else just as permanently…
"How.. will I stay alive outside of this place..?" Her mana core never reformed itself.
Absorbing the mana directly from the water and air, her body had begun using the ambient mana as if it was her own, turning her body itself into one huge, terribly inefficient mana core. -Her body is using the crystals coating her scales like the shell of a reserve to try and contain her mana.-
But that shell.. was thinning. -In less mana-dense areas, it'll be impossible to maintain any sort of solid crystal.- And in places above ground where there wasn't much ambient mana at all, her mana could drain quick enough that it could be deadly...
While she appeared to be absorbing and using ambient mana directly, in places without enough readily available, it could quite literally starve her to death… Similar to if I were to completely drain my own mana core.
Though, I wasn't terribly worried about it. "In theory, your scales should get better at containing mana over time, especially as they're strengthened under the crystals." Her scales would essentially become incredibly high grade mythril, and act similarly to the solid mana crystals on her scales.
A medium that stunted the flow of mana akin to black mythril. "Do you think it'll darken my scales?"
But I wasn't that convinced. "I doubt it. Since you're going to constantly be exuding an incredible amount of mana, they'll probably look bright blue, or potentially even white if the ambient mana is thin enough."
"Hoho~, then I suppose there's no reason to be jealous of your Mother." Innocently rolling onto her back, she spread her wings out across the ground, and stuck her paws in the air to look at her claws—appearing like a bright afternoon sky rippling with clouds.
"Hah," It was really cute. Just like Mother, some of her soul had been cleansed. "You were jealous of her?"
"Of course! You saw how pretty she looked. How could I have not been?! She looked like something descended from a different realm."
"Hahaha, well, in a way, she was." It brought back some of her youth.. and I loved to see it.
"Hmhm~, well it does make me wonder though." Pausing, her eyes drifted across the ceiling before dropping to her body—curling our wound tails as she looked at the metallic spines that remained in place of her old fins. "What will our kids look like..? You have a lot of experience with genetics, I think it was called, right?"
I nodded with a relaxed shift. "There's no telling. It all depends how deeply our genetics have changed over the years. Though, if this aquifer has told me anything, beneath the space mana, my scales and fur are indeed still white."
Rocking her head to let her eyes linger on me for another moment, she paused... "I.. like the black..." Rolling back onto her stomach, she folded in her wings to let her eyes caress my scales some more. "They.. remind me of the night sky... But.. I also wouldn't mind having a monopoly on them." Her smile slowly grew smug as her eyes crept toward mine.
But I no longer had any reason to shy away. "If you get too into it and splash me with mana like you did last night, you might just lose them-"
"Hey! I didn't mean to~." Turning away with a pout, she lifted and slammed our coiled tails. "It's your fault for denying me the young I've been waiting eons for."
"Pft-" Seeing her so bashful, I had to catch my laugh with my wing.
But sadly.. the warm atmosphere couldn't last forever.
"You know just as well as me that this just…" Slowly moving my wing away, my warm smile fell with my snout. "It's not the right time..."
Unfortunately, while we both wished for that moment of peace to last forever. "I know..." Reality was starting to settle. "Theres.. a lot we have to do before I'm comfortable bringing kids into this world as well..."
No matter how badly we mutually wanted them, there was no denying the fact that this world was unfit for them. "But it's just another reason we need to make sure we make it through this." Watching Hera's bright expression slowly darken with burden, I felt my chest tighten.
And with the clench of her tail, not another word needed to be spoken.
But it had to.
Even with our momentary escape, draconic society was in shambles, the Holy Kingdom was making advances we couldn't allow, and behind the scenes Jormungandr and something even greater were threatening everything we knew.
No matter how badly we wanted to stay there forever, time wasn't going to stop its march for us.. and with every additional breath we drew, the threats hidden ahead of us drew closer.
There was no knowing what would happen next.. which threat would collapse on our heads first…
But in the end, we just had to take things… "One step at a time..."
So, we weighed our options.
With the conversation gradually shifting, making room for Hera and I to organize our thoughts on what was to come, we spoke our minds for hours.
Everywhere we looked, a threat was laid.
Everywhere we turned, weighted decisions were needed.
But in the end, our guts agreed on the path we needed to take.
And it started with rebuilding draconic society.
With the development of an actual population, the resumption of research, and the recreation of some industry and a military force, managing the Holy Kingdom would get significantly easier, and free up a paw to focus on other things.
Though, in the meantime, -I need to help Hera.- Despite managing everything nearly on her own over the last decade, it was time I made up for my absence. -Starting with a check up on Siratha...-
While Hera had explained that they were doing well, and even making great advancements culturally and technologically during my absence, my return was long overdue.
And most of all, there were two things there that I needed to personally check...
"Have you.. seen Ilios around..?"
Hera shook her head as she leaned back and flicked her tail, now free from mine. "He's woken up, I just haven't seen him anywhere. I assumed he went to find you..."
"N..No... I haven't even felt his presence since I awoke." *Woom* Spinning up a breath of divinity, I once again tried to look around for a presence that could potentially belong to him.. to no avail. "Haah..."
He already had me worried with how long he was taking to wake up prior to my sleep... -But to disappear from the tree and not be by my side when I awoke...- Something about it just made my anxiety flare.
-I'll have to get the thunderbirds to help me find him or something...- But it wasn't just Ilios. "How about Dagr, then?"
"Huh?" Hera hardly knew what I was talking about though. "Dagr? As in your brother?"
I nodded as my eyes found their way back to her. "I tried to reincarnate him before I got knocked out. Was there not something akin to a dragon sleep happening in the canopy of the Tree of Prayer?"
"Oh!" Her expression instantly lit with an energetic flare. "That's what that was?!" Seeing me nod, her tail coiled across the ground. "I was wondering what was going on there... I tried to get a closer look several years ago, but Lief didn't let me get close."
"Y..Yeah," My snout fell with a burst of tension. "Definitely don't try to mess with that. The souls on that reincarnation circle are no joke." -Sounds like I'll need to check up on him though...-
And that was a complete understatement. "From what I could tell, there's like a.. cocoon.. or something up there. It certainly doesn't look like a dragon sleep."
-Sounds like more work...- But realistically, it didn't sound like a problem. -There's no telling how he'll look, how he'll change, or how his body will reform itself.-
Though.. a cocoon did make me raise my brow. "I'll.. check it out when I go by..." -It should be something more like an egg, I'd think...-
But I wasn't going to dwell on it.
Resuming our discussion, another several hours passed before Reon came by for one of his routine checkups.
Over the last few months, while I had been watching over Hera, he routinely came by to report how things were going, and ask for guidance with whatever roadblock he was faced with.
It was.. a little difficult to help him then, but now that Hera had awoken that was much easier.
"Sounds like you've made some good progress while I was out." Even Hera was pleased. Looking over some mock-ups Reon had drawn reconstructing and reimagining the style of construction the city would be rebuilt in, she couldn't hide her smile.
And Reon, well.. he was just curious how she was holding up the paper without being able to feel her aura. "U-Uh.. Th-Thank you, madam..." Though his professionalism never truly vanished. "Seeing as you've let me in here this time, has something been done about 'the call'?"
Hera was quick to nod as she handed the drawings back to him. "It's been dealt with. Though, the mana vein is still there… I might actually need to do something about that, now that I think about it..." Looking at me as if to confirm, I was quick to give her reassurance.
"If it's a properly formed core, it could become a dungeon core if left as is." Something we couldn't allow to exist right beneath the city.
But it wasn't just that either.
"It could also be a good opportunity to learn more about how your body handles mana now." Not only was it an opportunity for her to really strengthen her body to make existing outside of mana-dense areas like the aquifer more realistic, it was a great chance for her to learn how her body handled it all.
And with a firm nod as her eyes moved toward the water, it was clear she knew it too.
Though, that wasn't the only thing that needed to be done.
"With 'the call' gone, we can lift the restrictions on this place, and move more freely around the caverns." Turning back to me, Hera's mana-soaked eyes sank into mine. "Before we leave, let's help get this place cleaned up."
Not just the area around the aquifer, still covered with our blood, but the other collapsed caverns, the mines, and even the heart of the city.
"It would be good to go ahead and set up a space rune or two as well, so Reon can start bringing in help."
-Right...- "I may also take the opportunity to do a majority of the terraforming you suggested." Thinking back to some of the suggestions Reon had made over recent months, I turned back to him. "If you could take a moment to organize the things you'd like me to do, I'll make getting it all done a priority."
With one of his suggestions being the addition of a pretty substantial network of bridges, roads, and pathways throughout the central cavern for non-draconic beings, it was clearly a job a little beyond what normal dragons could handle. -Hopefully the mana in that part of the aquifer doesn't eat me alive...-
But, worst case scenario, I now had someone that could help.
While certainly still having hurdles she must overcome, being the closest remaining existence to the embodiment of mana, I had a paw that could reach the places my own could not.
Stepping into the future, I no longer only had myself to rely on... Should only one of us find a firm footing, the other could take some of the weight.. share some of the burden...
From that point forward, there were no more singular steps.. no more individual burdens that needed to be taken alone.
There was no denying my ever-present worry that perhaps one day, we would come across something that would crush both of us...
But in the end.. whether the fog ahead of us hid a mountain slope.. a giant's foot.. or a falling meteor.. we were going to step forward together.
One step.. one city.. one war at a time.
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