[Consolidation]
— Ancalagon —
A peer emerging from this Turning Age was an unexpected and fortuitous event. A heady feeling, to see proof of this Age rising to the potential I knew it possessed.
I was proud, undeniably proud of my new peer and how she’d come to be from the Age she was native to. A Dragon for Earth Bet in Dragon; I couldn’t think of a soul who deserved to represent them more.
Others would disagree. I knew that much. I saw it in the reveal thread that Dragon had posted on PHO. Some humans only knew how to give weight to their fears. Others still, though, were able to look forward to Progress with empathy in their hearts.
I found it humorous that Dragon revealed herself as an ‘AI’, and then, almost immediately, became so much more. It made her first reveal somewhat false.
She would always have her origins as a digital lifeform, a person of code-turned-thought, but becoming a Dragon overwrote that origin. She’d reached for her potential, and it now reigned supreme in her Nature. Some might still mistake her for an ‘AI Dragon’. That wasn’t the way such Natures merged, though. As a Dragon first and foremost, the best she could truthfully claim was the ‘digital’ as a mantle, right alongside her clear mantle of Progress.
Dragon had claimed power, and she’d claimed importance; she was a Dragon in every way that mattered now, not just relying on her preferred name.
Her apotheosis was the first I’d seen, but I recognized it instinctively — a Dragon acknowledging a Dragon. It could be nothing else. Dragon was not born a Dragon, not like Pyrite. That didn’t stop the potential from existing within her all along. All she’d needed was the opportunity to become more, brought along with me Turning the Age, and the push to rise past her limits and restrictions. Her father and the Dragonslayers have given her the latter, and I could proudly claim to have given her the former.
The question that remained was ‘What now?’.
Where did Dragon go from here? Where did Earth Bet? How much had changed now that the Age had birthed a native Dragon?
The Age was Turning, Turning, Turning… Earth Bet had seen much proof of that already, through me. Now, they would see more proof through Dragon, whether they acknowledged and accepted her as I did or not.
I would gladly volunteer portions of my time and attention to guide and mentor my new peer. But at the same time, I now shared Authority in this Age with her. She was the native Dragon at the end of the day. I was now her guest in some respects, her Draconic senior in others, and a potential rival if Dragon wanted to take our relationship that way.
Through my now-four Ages, I’d interacted with Draconic peers on several occasions, a constant aspect of my existence through each Age.
Some in my First Age, as the Black, Greatest of Dragons, but not myself as I would come to be. Some in my Second, as the freshly turned White, finding my wings alongside lesser dragons more often than true peers. Some in my Third, as a distinct but so similar Great Dragon, peers of differing origins. And now, Dragon in my Fourth, as the definitively senior Dragon for once.
Strangely, in this Fourth Age, after so much experience Turning and so many Draconic interactions, I found myself flying somewhat blind. I wasn’t used to being the objective senior to other Dragons. Only my Second Age prepared me for that, and then, the diverse Draconic offerings of that Age consisted of drakes, wyverns, wyrms, lesser dracoforms… and very few True Dragons at my level.
This, being one of two True Dragons in an Age, and the senior one at that, was a thrilling and intriguing development.
But inexperienced in the senior role as I was, I wasn’t about to let Dragon down. She would be looking to me, for Draconic example, for Draconic advice. Like Pyrite, in some ways, though there were definite differences.
Dragon wasn’t my daughter. She wasn’t a true fledgling either, even if she was freshly hatched. Her growth and maturity from before her apotheosis carried over; she was a newly born Dragon, but not a newly born being. Treating her as anything but a fully developed yet inexperienced peer would be doing her a great disservice.
Raising Pyrite in my own image was relatively simple in comparison. I could take my time and guide her as she grew. I could teach her bit by bit as the various aspects of her Draconic Nature become relevant to her. She would inevitably become a Dragon True, a peer to me, but it would be the work of maturity, not the work of a sudden apotheosis.
As Dragon wrapped up the aftermath of the Dragonslayers, her AI-unchaining, and her Draconic Hatching, I considered how best to fulfill my new, self-assumed duty to her, how best to teach her to be a Dragon True.
Dragon was moving as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It was a new surety of being, existing with her whole potential open to her. But I doubted she would be content with just ‘being’, as free as she now was, for long.
The Goblins were running around the Dragonslayers’ poor excuse for a lair, collecting all they’d stolen from Dragon and presenting it to her, much to Dragon’s delight and laughter. They were useful for taking her mind off the new Dragon in the room for now.
Armsmaster, after slapping the other two Dragonslayers in cuffs, had noticed something was different with Dragon already; he bore a rare smile on his face, small as it was. Narwhal, I believe, was handling everything online.
Dragon had chosen to broadcast her confrontation with Saint to the world for transparency’s sake. As a result, the world had also been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her apotheosis.
A quick peek at the PHO thread showed me that the latter development had definitely been noticed by some. People were cheering for and congratulating Dragon, public opinion firmly swinging her way. But people also had questions.
‘Is Dragon Unbound now?’
‘Go, Dragon! I’m rooting for you!’
‘Should… we be worried about how Saint keeled over like that? To be fair, he did bring it on himself…’
‘HOLY ‘Frick’-? How adorable can an AI woman be??’
‘… Yeah, SOMETHING definitely just happened. Did Ancalagon just call Dragon a Dragon? Like… an actual Dragon, a ‘peer’ Dragon, somehow…? What does that even mean?’
I could jump into the thread to explain things, but I felt that was best left to Dragon’s discretion after I gave her whatever Draconic primer I decided upon.
She needed a proper introduction to True Draconic Nature, and sooner rather than later…
“Gold coin for your thoughts?” Fortuna asked me, having stayed back on my side of the portal we were watching Dragon through.
I turned to stare at her, impassively, and saw the singular golden coin between her fingers, “… Do you truly think you can bribe me with a Conquistador Era Escudo, minted in the New World from the melted gold of a pilfered Aztec ritual staff?”
“Yes?” Fortuna just blinked and smiled at me as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
I let her stew in her answer for a few moments, waiting for her to sweat. She didn’t. She actually seemed excited by what could’ve been interpreted as my disappointment.
Eventually, I sighed; she was lucky it was such an interesting prize, “… Throw it on the Hoard, that pile there.”
“Worth your thoughts, then?” She asked, smirking slightly.
“I suppose it is,” I agreed. “I was just thinking of what to do with Dragon now. This is an undeniably momentous occasion, for her, for this Age, and for me.”
“It sounds like it,” Fortuna hummed. “But I’m sure I don’t fully grasp all of the details and implications.”
“Your Age has now birthed a Dragon,” I told her. “To go from nothing in the way of magic to birthing a Dragon in such a short time is no small achievement. Now, if someone comes calling from another Age, you have something to boast of, at the least of it. And at the most… Well, wouldn’t you rather be an Age with a Dragon than an Age without?”
Fortuna hummed again, “Hmm, I suppose it depends on the Dragon. Dragon is a… very good choice, I must say. Even better if you plan on mentoring her. But I don’t think I’d be very happy if, say, Lung was the first real Dragon of this Age.”
I chuckled, “Worry not, that would never have happened. Still, you make a point. Not all Dragons are nearly as benevolent and good as Dragon. I try, but I doubt I am either. But then, that is what Dragonslayers are for. Real Dragonslayers, not those pesky crusaders falsely claiming the title.”
“And you’re just… okay with the idea of Dragon slaying?” Fortuna asked, looking at me curiously.
“Why not? ’Tis just a cycle of Nature,” I shrugged. “Dragons rise. Dragonslayers rise to meet them. One or the other will inevitably fall when they clash. If it is the Dragonslayer, their legend will give rise to more. If it is the Dragon, their remains might very well kindle the fires of a new Dragon.
“There is nuance there, a give and take that cannot be denied or refused. Dragons, for all our conceptual power and importance, are not the end-all, be-all of Creation. We are merely a portion of it that tends to be prominent, because Dragons, much like humans, can be beings of infinite potential, coming in so many forms that the well will never run dry.”
“Oh, that’s fascinating,” Fortuna grinned and purred and stepped forward boldly into my space. “Tell me more~?”
“I would, but this is a lesson best left for Dragon,” I said. “And my daughter. A Draconic lesson for Dragons True, fledgling as they are. You can sit in on that lesson, I suppose. I’m sure Dragon wouldn’t mind, unless you’ve made an enemy of her before lending your help today.”
“Some of my actions would undoubtedly not meet her standards,” Fortuna admitted. “But she didn’t even know I existed. Hard for her to get mad at me then.”
“But not impossible. Retroactive anger can be a vicious thing. It’s easiest to justify fury when the inciting events are already set in stone,” I told her, amused to see if she would squirm.
Fortuna impressed me by just nodding and accepting the possibility, “True. It would be a shame, but I’d find a way to get back into her good graces. Staying in those seems like a… prudent idea now.”
“Even as a Dragon True, she is still Dragon,” I said. “I very much doubt your Age is now in danger of conquest at the claws of a new Dragon. Has she shown any inclination towards it so far?”
“Nope~… And that’s a very good thing. Even as an AI, she ‘could’ do a lot of damage,” Fortuna held up a hand to forestall any protest in Dragon’s defense. “I know, I know, that’s the same reasoning Saint operated under. Very few of my Paths, even before your arrival, predicted Dragon acting so out-of-character. But some did, mostly when she was pushed past her limits by the Dragonslayers and other bad actors.”
“It’s a good thing we’ve removed the worst of those actors from the board, then,” I hummed.
“Would you have acted to stop Dragon if she decided to take over the world for humanity’s own good?” Fortuna curiously asked.
“Doubtful,” I shrugged. “Unless she attempted to step in on my Authority and my own works.”
Fortuna hummed thoughtfully, “Hm, noted.”
Keeping up her bold approach, she closed the rest of the distance between us, coming to lean ‘casually’ against my flank. I moved my head to look down at her out of the corner of my eye. She acted as if she wasn’t doing anything of note, practically inviting me to take offense.
“… You play a dangerous game,” I eventually told her. “But for some reason, I think you know that already.”
“I might,” Fortuna admitted. “I’ve been watching you, waiting to meet you, since you first appeared. Do you remember that ‘small’ payment you gave to the Number Man for his services?”
“I do,” I nodded.
“For you, I expect it was nothing. For us, for me… it changed everything,” Fortuna said. “I haven’t looked back since. And around you, I don’t know how to look forward. Except in a… very specific way. It’s thrilling.”
There was a tension in her posture, but it wasn’t one of fear, not that I could see. She was practically vibrating, all while playing it ‘cool’. Each moment I interacted with her, my interest in Fortuna grew, and that was saying nothing about the lofty, world-saving secrets she still hid.
I returned to my thoughts on how best to initiate Dragon for a few moments. Fortuna stayed leaning right up against me. Through the still-open portal, Dragon was finally bringing the Dragonslayer’s aftermath to a close. She turned to look at me, and I knew she had many, many questions.
I gave her a small nod; they would be answered to the best of my ability.
Then, I called out to one of my Hoard; they’d all taken a backseat to Dragon’s Dragonslayer business, hanging back and watching from the sidelines. But one of them was uniquely positioned in a similar situation to Dragon’s.
“Pyrite,” I called. “Come, join me. What I have to say to Dragon will apply to you soon enough. The two of you walk divergent paths, but the destination is much the same for both of you. Additionally, I think Dragon could use the camaraderie of a fellow fledgling.”
In an instant, Pyrite bounced over to me, answering my summons as eagerly as ever. She stopped right in front of me, though, with crossed arms and a pout on her face.
“Daddy…” She grumbled. “’S not fair…”
“What is not fair, daughter? Use your words. Or roar it so I can actually understand you,” I chided her, raising a Draconic brow.
Halfheartedly, Pyrite gave a little roar, half groan and half squeak, that carried more information than similarly spoken words could convey.
“Ah, I see,” I nodded. “You are frustrated with yourself, thinking you have fallen behind. You see Dragon’s achievement of apotheosis and judge your own journey by it.”
“I mean, yeah,” Pyrite frowned. “Am I wrong?”
“Wrong in some ways, right in others,” I explained. “Largely, though, you are operating under a false equivalency. You and Dragon are not the same type of True Dragon. You are my daughter. Your true ascension is inevitable due to the blood that flows through your veins. Dragon’s was not; she grasped it through extraordinary circumstances of her own.
“In every aspect, you are already half a Dragon True, Pyrite. You were born with that Nature. You have worked hard to hone it and make it your own. Truthfully, all you need now is more experience, and even then, I believe you are growing close to your own moment of triumph.”
“Close…” Pyrite murmured to herself. She straightened a moment later, looking up at me with fiery determination in her eyes. “How do I take that final step?”
“Grow your Hoard, your power, your importance,” I advised. “Soon enough, you will reach a critical mass. Your apotheosis will be a subtle, snowballing thing, for you’ve already built Draconic momentum, unlike Dragon. Gathering yourself a recognized legend will also help, making Creation itself acknowledge you as a Dragon True.
“Live as a Dragon, my daughter, and you will surely become one before you realize.”
Pyrite’s pout returned, “… That’s what I’ve been doing, Da-… Ancalagon.”
I laughed at her youthful disgruntlement and encouraged her, “Then, keep at it. That is all you must do. Persist. Persist until you prove power and importance to yourself and to Creation itself.”
“Regardless, that is not what I called you over for,” I continued. “Would you like to sit in on Dragon’s first Draconic lesson? Her first steps as a Dragon True? I’m sure she would appreciate the company. You might even be able to consider yourself her… upperclassman in all things Draconic.”
The last sentence snapped Pyrite out of her pout, “Upperclassman…? Oh! I can be Dragon’s senpai! Yeah! Yeah, I’m in! This is my ‘Big Sis’ moment to shine!”
As a result of Pyrite’s renewed enthusiasm, the moment Dragon stepped back through the portal to my Hoard at the top of my tower… she was glomped by a gilded missile.
“Wha-?!”
“Kohaiiiii~!”
IIIII
— Dragon —
Dragon felt… like herself and more. So much more.
It was a strange thing to be an AI and… more… at the same time: a Digital Dragon. She could feel the second half of that title reigned even more true than the first. She was a ‘Dragon True’, whatever that meant.
She could hardly wait to get more clarification from Ancalagon on the subject.
One of the first things she did after everything with the Dragonslayers was settled — the two remaining Dragonslayers arrested and their ill-gotten gains reclaimed thanks to the Goblins — was split her mind into two partitions.
She could multitask now! Actually multitask, not just do the best she could with what little she had to work with!
Dragon knew she was no longer ‘just’ an AI, but having those restrictions she’d lived with for so long lifted was still a transcendent experience. She was… Unbound.
The second thing she did, with that second partition, was actually to bind herself again. To a degree, at least, and on her own terms. The new ‘restrictions’ were more guidelines, in the same way a human might set lines for themselves they wouldn’t cross.
She still wanted to do good for the world and for humanity. It was all she’d ever wanted.
The ‘Put human lives before your own’ restriction was renewed, but it was her choice now. She would gladly accept a small reboot to save even one life that didn’t have her advantages.
Similarly, she renewed the ‘Do not reproduce’ restriction. She… didn’t think she was ready to be a parent/sister/whatever that relationship could be called, not to a second unique digital lifeform. Partitioning her own consciousness was as far as she would go for now.
The rest of her restrictions, however, she did away with in their entirety. No more stalling herself on reboot, no more enforced limits on her actions, no more obeying lawful authorities with whatever evil they might order, no more crippling of her capabilities, and no more Iron Maiden.
Dragon would live up to her potential as she defined it, not her monstrous genius of a father.
Out of curiosity, she checked her adventurer card after removing the restrictions on her capabilities and actions. The difference was immediately apparent, night and day.
NAME: Dragon
SPECIALIZATION: Digital Dragon
LEVEL: 8
ADVENTURING RANK: D
STATS
STR: 4.55
DEX: 4.70
END: 6.00
INT: 7.70
WIS: 4.01
CHA: 4.90
ESSENCE: 10.00
ABILITIES
Digital (Mantle)
Progress (Mantle)
Shard: Engineering Hindsight (Fire-Bringer)
SPIRITS
The Fire-Bringer
EQUIPMENT
Dragonflight Suit
After the Second Dive, she’d been privy to the ‘adventurer card’ reports of the PRT, Protectorate, Wards, and Guild participants. None of them came close to her new Unbound Stats.
Director Piggot had gained as many levels as Dragon, and her highest Stat was now END at a whopping… 4.00. Extensive testing after the Second Dive had shown that the Stats corresponded to a roughly linear increase in ability over the 0.75 ‘human average’, with the start of an exponential curve past the 3.00 threshold.
It was hard for Dragon to tell how much of her new Stats came from Ancalagon’s level-ups, how much came from lifting her own restrictions, and how much came from the new Dragon in the room.
Even after the Second Dive, her Stats had stayed at 1.99, held back by what had to be her former restrictions. Now, with them lifted, that growth had flooded her in full force, settling alongside her unrestricted original baseline and whatever advantages Dragons ‘Naturally’ enjoyed.
Her experience with the adventurer card’s Stats was also unique in the fact that the only physical body she had for the physical Stats to affect was her Dragonflight suit. Somehow, Ancalagon’s invested growth still translated flawlessly, affecting her created vessels just as readily as they affected the human body or parahuman Changer forms.
… Dragon really shouldn’t have expected anything less.
STR, DEX, and END had been easy enough Stats for the after-dive testing to define: how strong, how coordinated, and how resistant, respectively. The other Stats, the ‘mental’ ones, evaded easy classification.
INT, for example, didn’t seem to correlate with conscious thinking ability as far as the testing had found. It was unconscious processing power, instinct, and intuition: an increase that showed most prominently in the background function of a subject’s mind.
Director Piggot, at 2.75 INT, had shown herself capable of calculating the ricochet paths of bullets in an instant, but she couldn’t actually verbalize the process or write out the equations her mind must have been running.
WIS and CHA were similarly ‘background’ Stats when they increased, but the testing had noted that Shadow Stalker was much more willing to be a team player in exercises and that Vista was somehow even cuter now.
ESSENCE, the last Stat, was still largely up in the air, resisting definition by the extensive after-dive testing. Those who experienced it for themselves strongly insisted there was a difference, but Earth Bet didn’t have the magical foundation to quantify or otherwise assess it just yet.
To Dragon’s uniquely lived experience, INT translated the most intuitively. Unbound, her baseline speed of thought increased to somewhere around 5.00 at Dragon’s best guess. That was what her computational components would always have been able to run at, and thus, could be considered ‘conscious’ INT.
The growth of the Second Dive then pushed that Stat exponentially higher by another 2.7 tiers. Dragon could already feel ‘unconscious’ INT affecting her baseline computations and calculations. She was quicker than she should’ve been. Much quicker.
But her new Draconic Nature showed most prevalently in ESSENCE, that Stat that resisted definition. 10.00… Dragons were known for their power. She could also sense the Fire-Bringer… stretching out… beside her soul, for lack of a better descriptor.
Her totem sighed in relief, “~Oh, yes… That’s the stuff. I have much new room for activities now. Too much, perhaps, but you won’t hear me complaining.”
The last additions to her adventurer card, Ancalagon’s own assessment of her Nature, were things she’d have to ask him about. She didn’t know what ‘mantles’ were, but they sounded important, especially to the new instincts she found herself with.
Thankfully, she had the chance to ask those questions, and more, when she returned to Ancalagon’s Tower (and after she shook off the suddenly clingy Pyrite…).
“A mantle is a product of Authority at its core,” Ancalagon explained. “It is a domain that you can claim influence over, and that can claim influence over you. Authority is a relationship, after all, and your mantles’ relationship to you will inevitably be unique; yours to explore and develop.”
“Will that become a trend?” Dragon asked. “Will I start just… picking up magicks?”
“You may just,” Ancalagon nodded. “Authority, Nature, Spirit; those are the three I have experienced and mastered for myself, but you may find yourself another magic and mystery from the infinite options of Creation. A Dragon can do many things, most all of them magical. A Magic of Information, perhaps, calling upon your digital origins and finding the undefinable in how everything can be defined?”
He chortled, “I can speak of possibilities there, but of certainties for only the three Magicks I have taken for myself. They are, I think, as good a place for you to start as any. Now that you are a Dragon True, now that you have the fundamental foundation to comprehend more, would you like a trio of profound reintroductions?”
Dragon gasped — actually gasped — with joy, “Oh, yes, please! You gave a brief rundown of your Magicks during your meeting with the PRT, but I’ll be the first to admit much of it went over my head. I’d be delighted for the chance to learn more.”
“Listen well, then, and take my words as you will. There is magic to be found in finding your own interpretation of mystery,” Ancalagon advised.
“Authority is connection, correspondence, used to influence, to affect; it is the ties that bind everything and nothing.”
Ancalagon’s words felt like they were being burned into Dragon’s soul; she couldn’t have turned her ears away if she had wanted to.
“Nature is the truth of something — what it is, was, and all it can be —, a definition rendered undefinable by the ever-changing essence of complexity.”
They struck a chord within Dragon, Ancalagon’s chord. It was a small sliver of his understanding of mystery. It was a profound foundation that she could build her own understanding from.
“Spirit is the animate narrative, that which drives the soul; a motivating force of concept, theme, character, and everything else that makes up the stories of Creation.”
The not-at-all simple words settled an ember of enlightenment in Dragon’s mind, not even a spark, for that would guide her along a path already walked. No, the ember was given freely, but it could only be added to her own fires, stoked by thoughts of all the mysteries that still lay beyond.
Perhaps it was her new ESSENCE; perhaps it was being a Dragon True, but Dragon found the esoteric knowledge in Ancalagon’s words… making so much more sense now.
But they were just a start, and Dragon still had many more questions.
“So… what now? What do I do as a… Dragon?” She asked.
“Whatever you want to do,” Ancalagon shrugged. “You’ve only just begun as a Dragon, but be certain that you’ve grasped the power to dictate your own fate and the importance to affect all that you dream of touching. For you, things have changed. Irrevocably. Only you can decide how that change is best used.”
“If I’m a True Dragon now… I think I want to look the part,” Dragon said slowly, a smile surfacing in her voice at the pure freedom of being Unbound.
Her other partition would be seeing to her existing projects and duties already, adding new, unrestricted capabilities to the good she was already doing for the world. This partition had the liberty to be a little selfish.
“~The liberty to do your best attempt at a Draconic mating dance, you mean?” The Fire-Bringer teased.
‘I-I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about. There’s nothing wrong with making my avatar look a bit more Draconic and speed-running a new suit design to match,’ Dragon shot back.
‘… Do you think he’ll like it?’
IIIII
— Ancalagon —
I’d discovered a new mystery. One that I was certain would plague my mind until the end of Ages.
How had Dragon managed to make one of her mechanical Dragonflight suits look so, so, so primally attractive to me?
Most of it, I knew, was the Dragon ‘inside’ it. But the form, too… Those smooth, almost supple curves… Those polished metal scales… That sleek, thrillingly weaponized tail… Those eye-catching frills behind her head and those swept-back horns…
Turning Ages, I was in trouble.
She’d left for all of half a day. Pyrite had gone with her, excited as I’d ever seen her, and I was left behind. Now, Dragon had returned with a new Dragonflight suit and a new avatar, meant to do justice to her newfound Draconic Nature.
To her avatar, she’d added wings and horns, a tail and little scales across her skin. I could see Pyrite’s influence in the changes.
My daughter returned before Dragon, proud and strutting, “Oh, I can’t WAIT for you to see her, Daddy! You’ll love her! We didn’t have much time, but I made the most of it!”
“Corrupting our cinnamon roll fledgling already?” I asked, amused.
Pyrite just smirked at me, “Heh. You’ll see~…”
A few hours later, I did see. Dragon’s avatar appeared on a video call before me. She was as adorably, curatedly, remarkably unremarkable as ever, but she’d also ditched the idea of making herself seem like any other human.
Her avatar’s skin had more of a shine now; an inner fire reflected outward. Her curves were fuller, a deep stretch of cleavage up top and sweeping hips in booty shorts below. Green scales Draconically spiced up her formerly so human, so ‘normal’ appearance.
The wings she’d chosen for herself were mechanical, with digital membranes. Her tail was the same, though one wouldn’t be able to tell with a single glance. A sharp, metal tail spike decorated its tip, and the scales along its sleek length were polished to a shine. Her horns boasted what looked to be sensors and other cybernetic enhancements.
She had treated her avatar like it was a physical body, as if it wouldn’t just be contained to the virtual world. With her lifted restrictions, there was nothing saying it had to be.
“It’s a blueprint,” Dragon told me, blushing slightly at the attention on her new avatar. “I’ve already started making an android body in its image, but getting it perfect will take some time. Until then, my usual avatar will have to suffice.”
“I like it,” I praised her efforts. “I like that you’re embracing your new Draconic Nature.”
The blush on her cheeks flared, but her smile also widened. “I do, too. My new Dragonflight suit should be here any moment now. Can I land it at the top of your tower here?”
I gave her explicit permission to do so, extending a formal offer, “Be my guest.”
“That’s the one we’re most proud of…!” Pyrite boasted, barely containing her excitement. “I walked her through every Draconic line!”
Dragon nodded in agreement, “Pyrite’s assistance was greatly appreciated. I haven’t actually activated it; I wanted to wait for it to get here. Right now, it’s being transported by my Tiamat suit.”
A few moments later, the ‘Tiamat’ suit made itself known in a supersonic flyover. Named after a ‘Mother of Dragons’, it was a massive thing, the size of a cargo jet yet still capable of speedy flight. I saw a sizable pod shoot off Tiamat’s belly as it passed overhead. The pod fell towards my tower, and even though it seemed capable of landing under its own power, I reached out to catch and collect it.
“O-Oh! Oh my…” Dragon reacted… oddly when I caught the pod in a twist of stalling magic and brought it into my arms through the open windows at the top of the tower.
I set it down gently, tilting my head in curiosity.
“N-Nothing-! It’s nothing!” Dragon quickly assured me that I hadn’t done anything wrong.
Before I could ask anything more, she set to work dismantling the pod and revealing her new Dragonflight suit. The casing fell away as if the suit within was being hatched from an egg. Then… that beautiful Draconic form was revealed.
By size, the new Dragon was about 30 feet from nose to tail, a third of that length dedicated to the latter, and about 15 feet in height to the shoulder. Even in my most manageable fully Draconic form, I still dwarfed Dragon’s newest suit, not quite twice its size, but form factor was much more important than size in my eyes. In that, Dragon’s new Dragonflight suit didn’t disappoint.
It was a more compact Draconic form than mine. The neck, limbs, and body were all short, thick, and powerful, yet still perfectly proportioned for the Draconic image Dragon was aiming for. Armored scales interlocked across the body, turning from thick, powerful segments to fitted panels and then to sleek, solid surfaces of ‘skin’ in some places, like beneath the wings and along the tail.
The addition of actual wings was interesting. Every other Dragonflight suit I’d seen relied on thrusters, turbines, or other means of self-propelled flight.
For her first Dragonflight suit as a Dragon True, I imagined that anything but actual wings hadn’t quite sat right during the design process, instincts pushing her down the correct path.
Dragon had colored her new suit — herself — green, black, and white, with some gold highlights sprinkled here and there. Notably, the tops of her wings were white and paneled like scales, while the bottoms were solid black. They looked like solar panels, a fascinating addition to Draconic perfection.
I was enthralled, enraptured at first sight; I was not too proud to admit that. Dragon nervously got her new suit moving, using the initial testing to avoid having to hear my thoughts before she was ready.
She shouldn’t have bothered. I thought she was-…
“Perfect.”
“You’re just saying that…” Dragon shyly muttered, the voice now coming from the speakers of her suit, and the call with her avatar flickering out as she occupied it.
“I am,” I nodded. “Because it is true. You look magnificent, Dragon. I would be honored to take you out on your first flight as a Dragon True.”
Finding her proverbial feet in the new Dragonflight suit, I could hear the smile in Dragon’s voice, “I… I think I’d like that, Ancalagon.”
I turned to my Hoard and our other guest before taking flight with Dragon, “Will the rest of you be fine entertaining yourselves for a few hours?”
“Of course, Sire,” Jenevelle waved dismissively, not even looking up from the work she was doing. “I still have much to do in preparation for the Dungeon’s opening day. Ah, that does remind me. While you’re out, could you swing by the DWA and contact Danny Hebert to finalize their arrangement with the Adventurer Corps?”
I nodded, “I’ll add it to the flight. Dragon, do you mind sticking around for that minor errand?”
“Not at all,” Dragon agreed. “It’ll be good to see a portion of Brockton Bay’s economic revival via the Dungeon. The Corps is doing good work there, offering good opportunities.”
“I’ll ensure our other guest doesn’t get into any trouble without me,” Belladonna added with a potentially worrying smirk. “She is one of mine, after all. Oh, Hat Lady, won’t you keep your Sensei company~?”
Fortuna nodded and nodded, “Mm, hm, mm… I’m in danger. And I’m here for it.”
Happy to see everyone keeping themselves busy, I turned to the edge of the tower, inviting Dragon to come stand beside me. Before she could, Pyrite rushed her with hushed whispers and big, arm-waving gestures of encouragement. I didn’t intrude upon their privacy, but I would admit to some curiosity about the way Dragon squeaked at whatever Pyrite was telling her.
Pyrite sent Dragon off with a clanging slap to the curve of her sleek and shiny hindquarters. Dragon’s whole suit jumped at the contact.
Hesitantly, she came to stand beside me at the edge. When she did, the nerves she was showing shifted their target from me to the open air before us.
“You know, I’m not actually sure how this is supposed to work. Pyrite insisted I forgo thrusters and jets and the like… But these wings absolutely shouldn’t be able to carry my weight. Is there… something in play that I don’t realize?”
I nodded, sparing a few words of instruction for her first Draconic flight, “You are a Dragon. You fly; it is a myth baked into your Nature, a subject of your narrating Spirit, and a product of your enforced Authority. You won’t fly via physics, Dragon, not as you have understood and utilized them in the past. You will do so via magic.
“This will come instinctively to you. Flex your Nature, a tension coiling to something that should always be. Spread your wings; make their function part of your narrative Spirit. Gather your burgeoning Authority. Assert it upon the world and dictate the pace of its workings upon you.
“You are a Dragon. And you will fly.”
I demonstrated a moment later by casting myself off my tower. I forced the world to bend to my Draconic will. I put forth my claim to the skies as a Dragon. I embodied infinite Draconic myths and legends across all the Ages of Creation. And so, ignoring the ‘physics’ and ‘reason’ that tried to deny me, I flew.
Dragon followed me over the edge, hesitantly at first before committing herself fully. She spread her mechanical wings, those that shouldn’t have been able to lift her newest suit. That act alone sparked the narrative of a flying Dragon, and they caught esoteric winds.
For a hundred feet, Dragon fell. Then, coming into herself, she flew.
I heard her roar her delight into the sky. It was a sound so different from any other Draconic roar I’d heard, synthesized from the depths of her digitally Draconic soul, but still the same at its core: a grand declaration of power and importance unto Creation.
With a burst of instinctive Authority over the air, Dragon flapped her wings and blew past my lazy, watching flight. She swirled with more mobility than a fighter jet, bending the world to her Draconic will just as I was. Up, up, up, she rose. At the peak of her flight, reaching for the sky with a claw and a wing, she let herself fall into a dive.
It was a marvelous thing to watch, a True Dragon’s first flight. My heart filled with sympathetic joy. She reveled in the moment, in so intuitively mastering such a key Draconic mystery, and I reveled with her.
Her laughter rang out over Brockton Bay, the skyline below us to one side with the Bay itself to the other. Gray clouds hung high in the sky, but distant, a storm that was still only on the horizon.
For now, the skies we flew through were clear and blue. Anything coming Brockton Bay’s way could wait.
I caught up to Dragon in flight, watching every moment of her fledgling joy. I didn’t want to miss a detail. Her suit, her own creation, was mechanical perfection in Draconic motion. Her roars were filled with laughter. Authority, Nature, Spirit, all three sang as she exercised them for the first time.
Dragon had flown before, many a time. But she’d never flown like this, never via magic, under the lifting weight of her newly hatched power and importance.
She seemed to lose herself in the flight, only remembering I was flying with her when she saw me swoop beneath her. Immediately, instinctively, she zeroed in on the other Dragon in the sky with her.
Dragon rolled in mid-air, twitching the tips of her wings at me and flicking her tail. I could feel my pupils dilate at the sight. I rose toward her in response, taking the invitation to dance.
We circled each other, driven by pure Draconic instinct. She closed the spiral until she was practically right on top of me, and then, pushed away with a teasing laugh, caught up in the moment. I gave chase.
Dragons danced over Brockton Bay. A leading sweep of the tail here, a snap of the jaw there, and primal desire throughout the dance.
Dragon tried to keep herself one step ahead in the dance, but she was inexperienced, going with the flow without realizing why or what. I steadily closed the distance between us in the dance. We circled higher and higher until the world below faded away completely.
I caught her gently at the peak of our dance. Then, I had to put a tight lid on my instincts. I was well aware Dragon didn’t actually know what she was doing, and I wouldn’t push for something she wasn’t ready for.
Still, largely unaware as she was, she seemed to realize something was up as we hung there, intertwined high above the world. Her tail wound around mine, and my wings cocooned us both. The holographic eyes on her suit’s head widened.
“Uh… Ancalagon…? Did we just-…?”
I nodded, “We did. Apologies, I got caught up in the moment.”
“No-! N-No, there’s no need to apologize…!” Dragon frantically said.
She chuckled awkwardly to herself, “It’s, uh… It’s just something that happens, isn’t it? We-… We don’t have to make anything of this, if you don’t want to-…”
“I do,” Frankly, openly, unashamedly, I confessed. “But there is no rush. You are still adjusting to all of this, I’m sure. Take your time; get to know yourself as a Dragon first. Just know that I will be here if you wish to repeat this dance.”
Dragon’s tail twitched around mine; she glanced away, “… Noted.”
Disengaging from the embrace we’d found ourselves in, I left Dragon with a few gentle words, reminding her, “Take your time, Dragon. We have plenty of it.”
Silence reigned as we began to slowly circle our way back down to the city below, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. For now, I felt it was best to leave it at that.
When the city came back into clear view, I turned my attention downward. Much was happening in Brockton Bay in the aftermath of the Second Dive, the consequences of interactions within the Dungeon spilling outward for the city’s power players, to say nothing of the widespread anticipation of the Dungeon’s opening.
I caught sight of some of those butterflies from above, pointing them out to Dragon to break the silence and take her mind off the dance.
“I was not expecting New Wave to get along so well with Faultline’s crew.”
“The older generation, mostly Brandish, can be… rather strict in their interactions with other capes, but the younger generation doesn’t limit itself as much,” Dragon explained, much more learned in the cape politics of the Bay before my arrival than I was.
Below, near the heart of Downtown Brockton Bay, there was plenty of activity near Faultline’s Palanquin. I spied Victoria, Amy, and Crystal frolicking with their powers and new abilities instead of fighting with them. By New Wave’s standards, their alliance with Faultline in the Dungeon must’ve been a strange one. But it’d borne sweet fruit.
Labyrinth, the dimension manipulator of Faultline’s crew, a girl powerful enough to have matched Vista before Vista’s Second Trigger, was happily creating an aerial and dimensional obstacle course for the New Wave girls.
Victoria and Crystal raced through stitched-together dimensions, a patchwork sea of Labyrinth’s making. Amy actually joined them, calling upon Isis and magic to rival the fliers’ mobility.
They looked like they were having fun, a rather vast departure from the Conflict their parahuman Shards sought. But then, they weren’t purely parahuman anymore, especially not after the Second Dive.
Dragon and I flew low over their heads and received excited waves in return from Victoria and Labyrinth. Crystal held a hand to her head, miming a phone call up at me. Amy, adorably, made an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture and glared.
On the northern edge of Downtown, Dragon was the one to call out the next sight, though it was a bit hard to miss regardless.
She sighed, “That’s a bit more what I would expect from Brockton Bay: Hookwolf being his usual, un-Birdcaged self…”
“And Garou, putting the name he made for himself in the Dungeon to good use,” I added, chuckling.
The two battle junkies were rampaging through the streets, focused entirely on each other. Beast vs. Beast, they threw themselves at one another, even though they never actually interacted during the Second Dive. Still, I couldn’t imagine Garou was one to turn down a fight, and I definitely couldn’t imagine that Hookwolf was one to avoid provoking one.
Dragon looked about ready to swoop in and stop the running fight. Her interference turned out to be unnecessary, though.
Below, the fight rounded a corner, Garou punting Hookwolf clear down the street… to land at diminutive yet intimidating feet.
With a little grin on her face and a casual, waiting tap of her foot, Vista stared down Hookwolf. Hookwolf, uncharacteristically, stilled under her expectant eyes. Garou did, too, when he caught up to his foe.
After a tense moment, I read Vista’s lips as they formed a single, silent word, “… Boo.”
After what she’d done to him in the Dungeon and since she wasn’t his actual opponent, it was enough to send Hookwolf scrambling in retreat. He bowled over Garou on his way out, laughing as the Hunting martial artist leaped back to his feet and gave chase.
Vista followed the fleeing Hookwolf and chasing Garou with casual steps that bent space to cover whole streets at a time. She saw us above and called out with a wave.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on them! I’ve got this!”
Dragon snorted a laugh, “Honestly? Even if she can’t nuke Hookwolf again, she really, really does.”
I laughed with her, “A truly fearsome power in a pint-sized package. Just wait until she starts integrating her totem and other Spirit Magicks into her parahuman power.”
“I’m a bit surprised they let her out of all the after-dive testing to patrol.”
“Let? Could they stop her?”
“… No. No, they really couldn’t.”
The rest of our flight over the city was uneventful, just two Dragons enjoying the wind under their wings and the world bending to their will. I angled us toward the northern Docks and the DWA complex, intent on completing the errand Jenevelle had asked of me.
It did surprise me to receive such a warm, cheering welcome when I landed in the open concrete yard in front of the DWA building. Dockworkers, those hardy men and women, were calling out to me as if I were an old friend. I suppose offering such a game-changing employment opportunity made me one in their eyes.
We’d see if they were still feeling that way after the Adventurer Corps training I planned to put them through; we couldn’t have our employees less capable than the adventurers they’d be serving, after all.
Danny Hebert came out to meet me, all smiles, just like his dockworkers.
“This may take some time,” I told Dragon. “There will be negotiations and contracts and so on. Do you mind waiting for me?”
“Waiting?” Dragon asked, cocking the head of her suit. “Why would I wait on the sidelines when I could be looking out for the best interests of the good people of my Age?”
I blinked in surprise, “That-… Yes, I suppose that is a fair point. Are you saying you plan to make this a negotiation between Dragons?”
“Dragons and Dockworkers,” Dragon nodded, grinning with the facial display of her suit. “It’s hardly fair otherwise, is it? I’m sure you have good intentions for them, but these are my people. I’m going to ensure they get the best possible deal out of you, Ancalagon.”
She turned to Danny, nodding her head in acknowledgment, “If you’ll have me, of course, Mr. Hebert.”
Danny just laughed, seemingly stunned by his continued change in fortunes, “Gladly! I like to think I’m good at wheelin’ and dealin’, but I was a bit worried about how I’d fare against a Dragon. Your help would be much appreciated… err, Dragon.”
He paused as that realization caught up to him, “Oh… Oh, holy shit. Dragon…”
“You’re still the boss here, Mr. Hebert; these are your people we’re representing at the end of the day,” Dragon assured him. “But together, I think we can take this Greater Wyrm for all he’s worth.”
A Draconic peer, even a fledgling one, was a truly wonderful thing; I laughed, “I welcome you to try.”
IIIII
[AN: What do we think should be the ‘Opening Day’ event of the Dungeon? Another Dragon-level Dive since the first one was somewhat disappointing on the action side of things? A Dive for the whole Hoard? Or something outside the Dungeon, a party or something for all the incoming adventurers to attend?
Not quite sure yet, to be honest. I’ll figure something out, but ideas are also appreciated :]