Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick stepped out of the light, followed by his people, and also Nirzir. All of them wore their preferred [Conjure Armor], but with slight differences. Poi wore his usual silver metal Spur-style guard armor, but he had conjured a shield which hung on his back; Erick didn’t know when he had made a shield spell, but it must have been created recently. Jane had switched her layered shell [Conjure Armor] for a warrior-cut dark blue robe, in the Songli style; it wasn’t as defensive as her normal armor, but it was more professional. Erick’s own [Conjure Armor] was in the same style, but white. Teressa had kitted herself out in grey full plate which was larger and more solid than her usual conjuring. A bit of mana sense revealed to Erick that Teressa’s new spell completely sealed her off from the outside world, but thick air spilled out from behind her neck, showing that there was clearly some sort of [Cleanse] effect going on, keeping her breathing good air. Erick rapidly caught on that her new armor kept her scentless, soundless, and in a comfortable temperature, too.

Erick probably needed to make himself an armor spell like that too. But not right now. Right now, they needed to have some scents upon them. That was why they were approaching Clan Pale Cow from the north, where the winds were sweeping their scents south, toward the clan.

Nirzir stepped forward, excitedly saying, “I have read that their cows should start to smell us within ten kilometers, but I don’t know how true that is.” She wore a pale violet short robe, with voluminous sleeves. It was conjured, so it would likely protect her more than it looked like it would. With a child-like glee, and probably because she was a child, she asked, “That’s why we’re coming in from the north, right?”

“Correct,” Erick said, taking the first steps forward, trampling down calf-high grasses as he went. “We’re five kilometers from Pale Cow, so it’s a bit of a walk, but I did not want to drop right inside of their defenses. The travel guide said that [Teleport] was a bit of a taboo, and Clan Pale Cow is an orthodox clan.”

“But you’re not using [Teleport],” Nirzir said.

“Yup.” Erick said, “But not many people can tell the difference, and so, appearances matter.”

“It’s been too long since we’ve been outside.” Teressa happily crunched forward, carving a path through the grass, as she said, “If only we’d get a wyrm attack, then it would be really fun!”

Nirzir readily took up the topic as they walked south, asking, “What is it like fighting a wyrm?”

“Like trying to fight a living mage tower that travels on its side and that only wants to eat you and every other living thing it can catch. Highly resilient. Never runs out of mana, but it can only cast one or two spells. The eyebeam wyrms and the [Dispel] wyrms are the most dangerous.” Teressa said, “Imagine a dragon with ten thousand eyes, and each of them targeting you with a [Force Beam]. Imagine a shadowy dragon that strips away all of your magic.”

Poi shuddered.

Jane just grinned.

Erick was glad that he never met a [Dispel] wyrm. Knowing what he now knew, that particular breed of wyrm could be very, very dangerous… Hmm. Erick asked, “Do the [Dispel] wyrms counterspell?”

“Oh yes.” Teressa said, “But they’re messy about it. It’s a dice roll if you get unlucky and they rip apart your conjured armor and weapons, or if they just lock down the mage, casting his small spells to distract the beast.”

Jane said, “They can’t do anything against already-cast [Polymorph], though.”

Nirzir didn’t seem to think that a [Dispel] wyrm was a big deal. She said, “I think my imagination is a weak imitation. All I have ever seen are dragon fights, and from far, far away.” Nirzir said, “I have heard that wyrms are uncontrollable, unconscious monsters. You have just said that the [Dispel] wyrms are a dice roll. Shouldn’t that make them easier to kill?”

“They’re nothing like dragons except for their shape; this is true. But don’t underestimate the removal of your weapon from your hand and the armor from your body, when you’re going up against a beast that will eat you whole.” She glanced back and looked down to Nirzir, asking, “What sort of dragon fights have you seen?”

“They’re all ended by Red before they can truly begin, but sometimes she is slow.” Nirzir said, “One time when I was 12, a fight happened a hundred kilometers from me and Red had yet to show after two minutes of battle. At the time I was with my brother, and he took me to see the fight. We [Teleport]ed in ten kilometers from the battle, and the sky…” She gazed out, saying, “The sky was black with dark rain, and every drop dissolved the world where it touched. Green lightning illuminated that dark sky… Two snake-like forms, one black, one green, both kilometers long, each twisted the clouds with their wrath. A mountain ripped from the ground, thrown by the black one, but then the green one vaporized the mountain with Void Lightning...” She pulled back from the story. “It was the most deadly thing I have ever seen. It only got worse and worse, with the dragons moving higher and higher in the sky... A few hundred people died in that fight but most were able to get away. Mother was furious with brother for taking me to see such a thing.”

For a moment, no one said anything. Probably because everyone was thinking of their own moments when they realized they were so very, very tiny.

Erick said, “I think we’ve all had some formative experiences like that.”

Nirzir nodded. “Mother was furious, but father and my brothers…” She stood a bit taller. “As they say: This is the world we live in, and the position we inhabit.” She asked, “What was your most terrifyi— Ah. Sorry. I have been told that question is inappropriate.”

Erick smiled a little. “My most terrifying moment was…” He paused. He hummed. He said, “I’ve had a lot of them, actually. The one I’m thinking of right now was that one time when we were out wyrm hunting and an eyebeam wyrm found us. We had to retreat, but then I went back to kill it on my own— This was before Ophiel, you understand. I appeared in the sky, which was a terrible mistake. The wyrm went right after me. I saw the jaws open and almost snap around me before I managed to get out of there.”

Teressa chuckled. Poi smirked. Jane frowned a little; she wasn’t there for that one. She had been doing more important things.

Erick added, “At that same time my daughter was inside Ar’Kendrithyst, showing Champion Yetta around and rescuing people from the Shades. If I had been waiting at home and watching the action inside the Dead City alongside everyone else in Spur, then that would have likely been the most terrifying time of my entire life here on Veird.”

They walked along the grass for a while, no one speaking.

And then Jane said, “Meeting Melemizargo while the Champion and her party had been transformed into sacrifices was pretty bad. Everything that happened in Ar’Kendrithyst was a nightmare, and I was only there for a month.”

“The Champion’s assault on the Dead City was horrific.” Teressa said, “But normally, there are rules you can follow inside Ar’Kendrithyst and be mostly safe. Mostly.”

Poi said, “My most terrifying experience is a twenty-three way tie, and each for different reasons.”

He said it so deadpan that Erick couldn’t help but burble a laugh. He wasn’t the only one; Jane and Nirzir grinned.

Teressa went, “Ha!”

“Give us one of the lighter ones, Poi,” Erick asked.

“Watching the Breach Demon almost get summoned.” Poi said, “That was terrifying. But it didn’t happen. So that qualifies for ‘lighter ones’.”

Erick nodded. “Yeah. That was scary.”

Teressa said, “Looking for a dragon feels like it could be a large, terrifying moment for me, but come on! We’re adventurers! We seek out this stuff because it has to be done, and because we’re all a little loose in the head.” She added, “And watching the Extreme Light bombs go off while you were suspended in the air and mostly dead… That was terrifying for me, boss.”

Erick reached over and patted Teressa’s forearm since it was the easiest place to reach, saying, “Thank you for being there for me.”

“Heh.” Teressa chuckled. “Of course I was there for you!”

Jane moved the conversation, “Speaking of danger: this is gonna sound really odd, probably because it is a very, very stupid idea, but I need to set it up first before I have it answered. So! I have Draconic Inoculation. This makes me—”

Erick paled a little, already seeing where this was headed. “Oh my radiant gods, Jane.”

Poi gasped a little. Nirzir looked lost. Teressa pretended she didn’t hear anything.

“Let me finish! This is a concern, and I want it answered fully.” Jane said, “The Knowledge Mages gave me shit answers, and the books don’t tell me what I need to know. It’s probably a case of cannibalism, but I need to know if it is that, too.”

Erick went silent. Poi looked straight ahead, focused on the horizon, just like Teressa was.

Nirzir’s eyes were wide, as she glanced toward Jane, realizing what she was asking.

No one said anything.

“Okay then.” Jane continued, “I’m immune to Dragon Essence. Can I take a dragon’s body for myself? What sort of bonuses does that give? If any? Would that be cannibalism? Do they have Familiar Form abilities? What does Dragon Essence actually do?” She paused for a moment, then said, “That’s it. I guess there wasn’t a lot of setup, after all.”

They walked south, toward Clan Pale Cow.

No one said a word for a good ten seconds.

Erick said, “Okay. I have no idea. Anyone else got any ideas?”

That opened the dam.

Nirzir instantly said, “You do not want a dragon form. It doesn’t matter what ‘bonuses’ it gives you! Or if you’re immune to Dragon Essence and there’s no risk of transforming! You’ll be hunted down by ALL THE OTHER DRAGONS if you look like one.”

Teressa glanced backward, declaring, “Yes. That.”

“You can mix and match Familiar Form abilities.” Jane said, “Just the scales alone could be great for all my other forms. Dragons are supposed to have impenetrable scales.”

Teressa said, “When a dragon loses their dragon essence, they become a wyrm. And you can’t get a wyrm Familiar Form; people have tried. Maybe that transformation occurs at the exact moment of death, or maybe it takes a while. Maybe you could eat a dragon’s heart and then its brain while it was still alive, maybe, but if you don’t have Dragon Essence, you cannot get the body of a dragon.” She said, “I’m almost 100 percent sure on that one. Not too sure on the live-eating, though, I just came up with that just now, and I have no idea if that works.”

“That’s a wonderful mental image,” Poi said, sarcastically. “Thank you, Teressa.”

Teressa laughed. “Anytime, Poi!”

Jane grumbled, “That’s almost exactly what the Knowledge Mage told me.” She said, “But doesn’t that seem wrong to you?”

Teressa said, “No. It seems perfectly logical to me. Without the immortality and general… ‘dragon-ness’ of [Dragon Body], the dragon can’t support the massive elemental forces raging inside of their bodies, and those massive forces turn those bodies instantly into undead. At least that’s the stories we orcols tell each other. I don’t know much about necromancy… Everything I just said was probably untrue, now that I think about it.”

Erick said, “I really need to research undead and necromancy, if only to understand what that’s all about.” He asked, “Why does a wyrm animate itself? How do natural undead form? Are wyrms natural undead? Or are they created?”

“I can answer some of that,” Nirzir said, happy to be able to answer a question. “Natural undead form when enough naturally-occurring core dust remains in the body and the body is left to rest in an area that is both saturated with mana, and stagnant, like in a dungeon, or in certain parts of the Underworld. This inundation of ambient mana sometimes forces true cores to form out of the nascent core shards in the body. And then, the core manifests control over the body, becoming a natural undead. Sometimes monsters that have been slain have been known to rise again as undead because the cores have not been removed. This is rare, though, because one of the major necessities for the creation of spontaneous undead is to be left in a place of no moving mana, and most things don’t like living in those places, including undead. Therefore, you almost never find natural undead where they were ‘born’, because the only things there are other baby undead, and the natural undead want to hunt the living, and so they wander out of their birthing zones to find those living people.” Nirzir said, “There are special circumstances everywhere, but that’s the basics of natural undead.”

“But why does the core manifest control over the body?” Erick said, “Is it because of a ‘history of the item’ sort of interaction?”

Nirzir paused in thought, then said, “The term we use is ‘Life’s Dark Impression’, but I think we’re talking about the same thing. Life’s Dark Impression is what happens when the aura of the body is absorbed into a core, forming the core, and then that control spreads out again to control the undead body. This is why when you destroy the core of an undead you will actually kill them, and they won’t rise again, but if you fail to destroy or take the core out of the body, then the undead can rise again.” Nirzir said, “Your term ‘the history of the item’ is applicable to any item, though… And I suppose a corpse counts as an ‘item’, but most items can’t come to life because they were never alive to begin with. Ah. Necromancy is a difficult subject. I am sure I don’t know the full truth; only enough to know how to counter most soul magics.”

… Oh!

Erick had a large thought.

He shared that thought, “I just now realized why you can’t eat a fertilized egg and get a Familiar Form. What you’re doing when you eat the brain and the heart of a beast is that you’re absorbing the ‘Life’s Impression’; not the Blood History or whatever, of a body. Which means you probably cannot eat the heart and the brain while keeping the body alive through Healing Magics, for that Impression still belongs to the being, since they are still alive. Once they’re dead, that Impression is released by the Script.” He said to Nirzir, “In this theory, Impressions are one of the parts overseen by the Script; you understand.”

Nirzir shrugged. “I am still in training at the Palace of the Eternal Court, but what you say seems like it could be true.”

“There’s no need to speculate.” Teressa teased Jane, “You do all these weird things all the time with your Form. I know you must have tried to eat the heart and the brain while the monster was still alive. Let us know the outcome!”

Everyone looked to her as they walked.

Nirzir was judging, a bit; Erick purposefully refrained.

Jane frowned a little. Then she blurted, “I tried it on a monsterized cow! … And all of that seems correct to me, too. You certainly can eat a monster’s brain and heart while it is alive, but you gain no Familiar Form.” She said, “But I’m not about to do that with a dragon. I just want to eat it when it is dead… Maybe.”

Poi finally spoke up, “Dragons are still people.”

“And yes!” Jane exclaimed, “That is a problem, too! I’m more asking if it could be done! If I could gain a dragon’s body and what that would give me! Not if I should do it. I already know I shouldn’t do it.” Jane said, “I just… Need to know.”

Nirzir joked, “The Headmaster has [Duplicate]. Maybe he could let you eat a copy of his head and heart! No ethical dilemma at all!”

Teressa said, “There would still be a dilemma.”

Jane went silent, because she was honestly considering Nirzir’s suggestion.

Poi went silent, likely because he was focused on Erick, because Erick went down a rabbit hole.

Nirzir asked Erick something, but he barely heard her.

Erick was vastly uncomfortable with the idea that he could get his daughter a dragon form, either taken from a dead dragon that he was forced to kill, or from a living dragon that he just… cast a spell at, or something. But before he even got to that point, he would need to figure out how to [Duplicate] the living.

The spell’s original form created a physical copy of a physical item by taking the dead history of the original, copying it, and then [Mending] the copy; using the metaphysical Reality of the item to create an item in reality.

But if Erick was correct about the Script controlling the Living History of living things, [Duplicate] would need to be adjusted in order to allow it to copy that Living History. Such an adjustment might not even be possible, if the Script was truly the limiting factor, here.

[Duplicate] specifically denied the copying of living items, after all.