Royals
“Major boost speed. I know it’s almost impossible Ruby but you must hold out a little longer. Don’t lose control in front of your daughter. Just a little further. At least until we're out of the city. Please hold out.”
Visibly taking a lot of strength to restrain herself, the Queen is now completely covered in scales and starting to develop draconic features. Holding out for another ten minutes, they reach the end of the city where the Queen fully transforms into her draconic form, lands on an empty patch of grass and starts screaming loudly, breathing fire wildly, stomping the ground, scratching at herself with her claws and hitting her head to the ground.
It takes her about thirty minutes to calm down, in which she deals considerable damage to herself. Bruised and bleeding she now lies on the ground breathing heavily.
“I’m so sorry, Ruby.”
Huff Huff
“I didn’t know and I’m sure Scarlet just wanted to wait to tell you in person herself.”
Growl
“Alright, I‘ll shut up. I’m sorry…”
“Tsk Tsk Tsk What a sorry state you’re in little Ruby.” Ifrits voice says as she steps forward from a ball of fire.
“I’m not in the mood, your Highness.”
“I can tell. Even if my blood is thin in you we’re still connected. When you feel this strongly, I have no choice but to feel it in the back of my mind as well.”
“Your Highness, leave while I can still be polite.”
“You want to talk about politeness? Maybe start with not getting me to feel all those ungrateful feelings. I granted your wish and now you’re still not satisfied.”
“I never made a wish to you!”
“Oh please, for the last few hundred years I constantly heard you whine about your dead child and how you wish you could have saved them, so I got you a replacement. Aren’t you happy?”
“There is no such thing as a replacement for a dead child!”
“In that case I’ll just find Rose a new family.”
“What!? Don’t you dare touch her!”
“Oh? So you have accepted her after all, then why do you still miss the other one? You have a replacement now.”
“Rose isn’t a replacement! She’s a unique child that has nothing to do with the dead! They are completely unrelated. I can still mourn my dead child and embrace my new one!”
“Sigh I don’t understand you mortals…You know it’s things like this that make my siblings think dragons were a bad project. Too much emotional investment.”
“And yet you don’t replace us. That means even in your mind you have some understanding of family.”
“Tsk Don’t lecture me. Fine, I guess I do somewhat understand but you still don’t show enough gratitude for the daughter I gave you! I even merged her soul with a copy of your dead child’s, you know? Do you have any idea how annoying it is to do that? I had to go through the goddess of death and the god of reincarnation to get a record of what that soul looked like so I could replicate it.”
“You…You did what?”
“I made a copy of your dead child’s soul and merged it with hers, that way your dead child can live on, you’re welcome.”
“What the hell do you mean ‘you’re welcome’ don’t go around recycling my dead child's soul into my new one!?”
“Huh? Why not? What's the problem now?”
“The problem is that you’re putting this baggage onto my child! How dare you make her live with the ghost of her dead older sibling.”
“I have no idea what you’re on about. An unborn’s soul is just an empty vessel anyways, it’s not like it really matters. I just thought it would be reassuring if I shape her vessel the same way your dead child’s would have been if it was born.”
“How does the shape of the soul affect your life?”
“It doesn’t really. It’s more of an aesthetic thing. It essentially determines your appearance, your scent, your sex and to some extent your tastes but that’s about it.”
“I see…At least it’s not going to impact her much. Why’d you have to make her a saintess though?”
“That wasn’t me. It was a mix of Lum helping me out and her just fitting into all the categories. I try not to involve myself with the business of the gods if I don’t have to, it’s a huge waste of time.”
“Right…I’ve talked to Sally. What is the meaning of her ‘being known to the world’ and being more spirit than elf or dragon. Also why did you name her Dancer?”
“Being known to the world just means that we know of her and hold an opinion of her. I gave her the name Dancer as a placeholder name. That way she could get named without draining anyone’s mana. Think of it more as a job title, like if I called you Queen or referred to a smith as Smith. It holds enough power to serve as a placeholder but it’s not a true name. Currently she is still technically nameless. As for the other part, it's just a matter of fact. The kid already had more Spiritblood in her than most Spiritelves, which together with the spirit blood of your lineage and the blood I gave her from my involvement makes her mostly spirit.”
“Does that mean anything? Does she have special dietary concerns? Different things I need to look out for in her development? Anything like that?”
“Hmm…Well, she probably will inherit a certain detachment from mortals. It will probably be easy for her to be the center of attention but hard to create meaningful bonds with people. She’ll feel emotions more strongly than others and she will probably lack empathy, at least in the way mortals understand it. Also frequent contact with fire and heat should be maintained more than with regular fire dragons,...
As for differences in her body…She’ll age slower. Her mana capacity will be higher than regular children, she’ll naturally be attracted to people with a fire or spirit affinity, magic that can affect spirits will affect her…And that’s about it, at least until her birthday.”
“What will happen on her birthday?”
“I’m not entirely sure but we’ll come to the party.”
“When you say ‘we’-”
“I mean my siblings and I. Not sure if Nox will come though, he has mixed feelings about her.”
“Y-your Highness, are you sure at least five Spirit Kings will arrive?”
“Yep, but don’t worry we’re not very demanding. We’re just coming because we want to see the kid so a small party for friends and family is fine. No need for any offerings or anything.”
“R-right…At what time can I expect you to arrive?”
“No idea, sometime before midnight of the next day and after midnight of her birthday, hahaha.”
“I-I see…”
“Anyways, we’ll talk more when the party is over, let me fix you up real quick then I’ll go.”
Putting her hand on the Queen all of her wounds suddenly heal and the King disappears in a ball of fire.
“Uhm…Ruby? On a scale of 1-10, how fucked are we?”
“I’d say a 6, maybe a 7. Let’s go back, Rose is probably scared by now and I need to prepare for the party.”
“How can you be so calm about this? That was Ifrit herself.”
“Yeah…You’ll get used to it after some time.”
“After some time!? Is this a common experience for you!?”
“I wouldn’t say it's common but it happens about once every hundred years because I inherited about double the spirit blood as everyone else in our family. She took a liking to me because of it and occasionally does these ‘check ups’.”
“Huh…I knew you convened with her sometimes but I thought it was more…Of a religious experience, I didn’t think it was this casual.”
“It wasn’t always. Like I said, at some point I got used to her but the other Spirit Kings are a completely different matter, I have never conversed with or seen any of them. Let’s hope they’re not nearly as prone to rash decision making as Ifrit…Anyways, I need to get home quickly, can you carry me back, big sis? You’re faster than me after all.”
“Of course. Hop on.”
The queen then transforms back into her polymorphed form and flies on top of her sister’s back. After about fifteen minutes they come back to the castle where from the window the both of them can already hear sobbing and whimpering.
Flying in through the window, the queen finds Rose curled up on the bed looking like she has been crying for a long time.
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“Mama hates me, she’ll never come back.”
“Mija…That’s not true, your mother loves you very much. And look, she already came back for you!”
“Huh?”
Feeling a hug around me, mama’s scent fills my nose, “I’m so sorry mama! Please forgive me! I won’t make you angry again! I promise, please don’t leave me!”
“Shhhhh…Rose, it’s alright, I would never abandon you. I wasn’t even angry at you, I was just angry about what you told me about. And even if you made me angry, even if you made me absolutely furious I would still not abandon you.”
Whimper whimper
“I’m so sorry, please don’t leave. I’m so sorry.”
“Shhhhh…Look at me Rose, I’m not angry. Your mama loves you so much. I would never ever abandon you.”
“Gao…?”
“Yes, really, really, so please don’t look at the floor anymore, look at me, my cute little Libella.”
Looking up, mama gives me a very warm smile.
“See, I’m not mad at you at all. I love you very much Rose and I will never abandon you.”
“Mama…Still loves Rose?”
“Of course! And I will never stop loving you either!”
“But I…I made you mad…Auntie was mad at Rose too when she left…”
“Hmm I guess that’s true you did make both your auntie and me a little mad but do you know why we were mad?”
“Because Rose did something wrong?”
“No, not because of that. We were mad because you were doing things that were hurting you. Both your auntie and I love you very much so we get really mad when you get hurt.”
“Is that why mama and auntie don’t hit Rose?”
“Yes, even the thought of you getting hurt makes us really sad and angry so we would never hurt you.”
“But isn’t it fun to hit me? People seem to be happy when they do.”
Hugging me really close, mama answers, “No, only really really bad people would think it’s fun to hit you.”
“So I was right, you are all really good people…Hey mama?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Is it okay if I sleep a bit? I’m really tired.”
“Of course, dear. Sleep as much as you want.”
“Okay…”