Chapter 28

The sun came streaming in through the gaps in the curtain, across the floor and onto the sleeping dragonesses face as she slumbered in the bed. Xellos was just finishing putting his gloves back on as he studied his sleeping mate. The glow from her neck had completely gone now, his mark having finally taken its form in the early hours this morning. However it seemed to extend beyond the nape of her neck. The mark itself took the form of two small triangular arrows pointing up, and a large one beneath and between them pointing down, giving the appearance of a very simply drawn angular animal face, almost fox-like but longer, and blood red in colour. He also observed that there was now a matching blood red streak in her once pure golden hair. She also had the same colour striped across her eyeline, she looked as if she were wearing red makeup on her eyes. The only other physical change he could see aside from the disappearance of her scar, 'thankfully', is the flat edges on the tip of her tail also had the same red stripe along them. He wouldn't know what other physical changes had occured to her until she woke up, but the fact that any had occurred to this extent surprised him somewhat. Whilst he did expect her soul to change a little bit from his joining with her, he didn't expect it to this extent in physical view. But then again when Val was reborn as a monster his physical change was very drastic, maybe he should have. But he wasn't putting nearly as much magic as that into Filia when he was claiming her. It was only supposed to be just enough to connect them, not to remake her as a monster hybrid.

But she also wasn't a hybrid. He checked her astral signature and it still showed her true to her dragon form. Her aura though had shifted ever so slightly. Before it used to glow gold with flecks of white sprinkled through. The golden glow was still there, but now there were small red flecks mixed with the white ones. If she had changed this much, then he couldn't help but wonder how much he might have shifted. He stood for a moment in deliberation. He needed to do some investigating and testing, but if she woke up before he got back and saw herself, she was going to panic. Looking around at the room he had only recently finished putting back together he had an idea. He went around and removed every mirror or reflective surface he could find. The vanity looked odd without its usual mirror but it'll have to do in a pinch. He then went to the large bathroom and ran a hot bath with a large amount of soap. She would likely wake up wanting to wash and at least now she wouldn't catch her own reflection in the murky water. Leaving a note for her on the dresser to bathe and then where to come find him he gave her one last long look before vanishing from sight.

/

The harsh sunlight began to sting her eyes as Filia awoke. Her entire body throbbed with a dull ache, and her body felt so heavy. But she needed to get up and take a bath. She looked around the room and found she was alone. 'Figures,' she sighs to herself as she slowly heaved her heavy body out of the bed. Feeling a breeze she noticed that she was still naked, but was too tired to care at this moment, getting up and stumbling to the bathroom. She almost cried in relief when she saw the bath already filled with hot soapy water, going over and stepping gingerly into the warmth. 'At least he showed a little thought for me. He could have waited until I got up before leaving though,' she thought with a slight sulk as she let the warm water soak into her muscles. She felt the pain begin to completely melt away from her, leaving behind only the faint memories of last night.

'Last night was,' Filia's hand came up and lightly touched the back of her neck, the touch sent a tingle through her, her thighs clenching in memory, '...wow'. She grinned goofily to herself. Looking down and inspecting herself she noticed her chest littered with little bruises, a strong blush covering her face. 'Well that's...embarrasing. Guess I'm not wearing anything low cut for a while,' she resigned to herself as she spent the next ten minutes just soaking. When the water began to cool she finally rose out of the tub and dried herself off with a nearby towel. Going back into the room she browsed the closet, hoping to find a spare shirt or something, her dress being far too revealing to cover her up. She did come across a red dress with yellow trimmings that did look like it would cover her bruises, but it didn't have any sleeves, and that slit up the leg! 'Nope. Why does he even have that one?' she thought in a huff to herself as she kept looking. She eventually found a large white tunic with grey and gold repeating patterns along the base and neck line. If she could find a belt or sash of some kind she could make it work. She did managed to find a simple thick black belt with silver buckle, as well as a pair of black form fitting pants. She put on the makeshift outfit. She looked around for a mirror to check her work, but strangly found the vanity's mirror missing. A quick glance around the room revealed no mirrors at all in sight. 'Odd. I know there was one in here yesterday'. As she was looking around she noticed a piece of paper left on the dresser. Picking it up she saw Xellos had left her a note:

Good Morning Sleepyhead

I've run a bath for you. When you're done come find me in the library. Try not to take all day about it

Xellos 3

"How does he sound sweet yet infuriatingly condesending at the same time!?" She growled as she threw the paper down, finding her flat shoes and putting them on as she left the room. She had only been gone just over a month, so she still remembered the way to the library as she stomped down the hall. She made it to the crossing section when she heard a whistling to her left and saw the child-like monster Deno walking out from the North wing, hands behind his head as he whistled a nameless tune. He turned to her and nodded politely and faced forward, but then stopped dead for a moment and turned back to her. "Hey Goldie! Nice look you've got going there. Very eye catching".

"Oh, um...thank you I guess, Mr Deno. It's all I could find in the closet at the time," she replied hesitantly, never really speaking to this monster since Vals hatching.

"All you could find?" Deno tilted his head in puzzlement. "I mean I guess the clothes are ok. Whatever, I've got places to be. See ya around lady," he said offhandedly as he continued on his path to the south end, not even glancing back at her. His comment just puzzled Filia further as she continued on.

She made her way to the large double doors of the library, bracing her feet and puting her shoulder against the door, she shoved as hard as she could-SLAM!- The door went flying open as if it were kicked in, FIlia stumbled over her feet and fell to her knees. She looked up astounded at the door. She clearly remembered that door taking a good amount of shoving for her to open it. Had they replaced the door with a lighter one or something? She heard a noise and turned to see Xellos and Somari coming around from behind a bookshelf, staring questionly at her on the floor.

"Like to make an entrance do you?" Somari asked with a raised brow. Filia felt a blush come to her cheeks as she got up from the floor, dusting herself off. "No! I just don't remember the door being that light before. It's not my fault the new door looks just like the old heavier one," she huffed as she patted her legs off.

"New door? But it's the-" Somari was cut off by Xellos clearing his throat loudly, looking towards him she saw the slight shake of his head. "Whatever. Well now that you're here you may as well join us. Come along," Somari called as she walked back the way they came, Xellos hanging back to wait for her before they both followed the monsteress.

"So how are you feeling this morning?" Xellos asked as he studied her from the corner of his eye.

"Fine I guess. I was sore when I woke up but a nice hot bath helped me get over that. Thanks for that by the way," she replied as she walked beside him.

"Well that's good. I thou-" -POW- "AAhhh! What was that for!?" Xellos exclaimed as he held his arm where she punched him. That had actually hurt him.

"That was for not even having the decency to wake me up before leaving, especially after last night! And on that topic, we have got to talk about you leaving "mementos" behind in visible areas!" Filia argued, gesturing towards her chest and the littering of bruises hidden under the high neck of the tunic.

Rubbing the sore spot on his arm he grinned down at her, "Oh, so you would prefer that I left them in less visible areas then?"

"I would prefer that you not left them at all!" she hissed back through gritted teeth, her cheeks turning red.

Xellos chuckled as they continued walking. They came to a little nook with a table that was littered with books, random magical items and a small bowl of water. Somari grabbed what looked like a small glass ball on the end of a short wooden ornate handle and approached them both. "While you're here, hold still you two," she said as she first held the glass orb towards Xellos. Within the glass a small black cloud could be seen swirling and growing quickly until it consumed the whole globe, little streaks of red could be seen within its vortex. She then took the orb away from Xellos until it returned to its clear state. She then held the glass up towards Filia. They all watched as the smallest sliver of swirling red and black gently twirled and floated around the otherwise mostly empty space in the center. "Fascinating!" she exclaimed, running back to the table and flicking vigorously through a large book.

"What's fascinating?" Filia questioned, looking between Xellos and Somari. She paused her search to glance up at her, her eyes then turning to Xellos. "She's your problem, mate. You deal with it," she said dismissively as she returned to her search.

Filia turned to Xellos expectantly. Xellos rubbed the back of his head nervously, avoiding eye contact with her. "I suppose if I must. You might want to have a seat Filia". Filia scrunched her face in confusion, but abided his request and sat down at the table, turning to face him.

"Now before anything, you need to be aware that we don't have all the answers yet, so things may get more or less complicated as we find out new information," Xellos stated as he tried to think of the best way to put this. "You can appreciate Filia, that barring the formation of Valgaav, there has never been a monster-dragon pairing in any sense of the word before us, correct?" Xellos questioned. Filia nodded in affirmation before he continued. "Well you see, unexpected side effects have presented themselves as a result of us becoming a mated pair, and we are still figuring out to what extent they are affecting us," Xellos informed, waiting to see her reaction.

"Side effects? What kind of side effects?" Filia questioned, worry creeping into her voice.

"See for yourself Goldie," said Somari, motioning towards a handheld mirror lying on the table. Filia looked to Xellos with apprehension on her face before jumping up to grab the mirror, Xellos stepping out of her way, bracing himself. Filia raised the mirror with shaky hands and staired at her reflection. She didn't look much different, except for the fact that it looked like someone had put red eye makeup on her while she slept. The red streak staying mostly to her eyelid with an extra sweep of to the side, giving her eyes a sort of wing at the ends. She then also noticed the blood red streak at the top of her head. Following it she saw it started from the bottom of a portion of her bangs and all the way down her hair in a solid line. "What has happened to me!?" she exclaimed as she tried rubbing furiously at the streaks on her eyes, hoping this was all a prank and they would rub right off, but her efforts were not rewarded, the marks stayed firm.

"Like I said, we don't have all the answers yet. But I have a theory that when I placed the mark on you, you absorbed more of my power than I was expecting you to," Filia looked towards him. "From what I can tell from your aura and astral signature, you still appear to be mostly yourself. You still feel like a full fledged golden dragon, it's just that, there's flecks of my demonic power sprinkled through. Your spirit seems to have merged with it seamlessly. I must admit, I'm oddly proud of that fact about you Fi-chan. I would never expect any dragon, least of all yourself, to merge so effortlessly with my kind of power, and come out relatively unscathed," Xellos did indeed sound impressed.

Filia however, was trying not to panic. "Are you saying my very soul is now corrupted!? I'm some sort of half formed hybrid!?" Filia was grabbing at her hair in distress. She began hyperventilating as tears formed in her eyes.

"No no Filia! Calm down. That's the strange thing. You still have your purity in your soul. It just seems to be..coexisting with the demonic energy. That's why this is so fascinating. At worst I was expecting the mix to make a magical canceling energy, like those magical vessels in Alto and Bantone. I wasn't worried about turning you into a hybrid, I wasn't putting out nearly enough magical power for that to occur," Xellos tried to reassure her, it would solve nothing to let her devolve into a full blown panic attack.

Filia tried to take some very, very deep calming breaths, wrangling back her self control. "Ok, ok, ok. I hear you. I hear what you're saying. But what does this mean for me then? Can I use dark magic now? Will holy magic harm me now? Can I still use my powers? What do we know?" Filia said, trying her darn best to not freak out over unknowns.

"Unfortunately Goldie, we don't know much of anything outside of what we are seeing with our own eyes. And I'm not finding anything helpful in the books I have here. We're kinda in a spot where the only way we are going to find answers is through trial and error it seems," said Somari, closing the book she was ruffling through. She then looked up at them, an evil look in her eye. "So. Who wants to go first?"

Filia looked confused, "first? What do you mean?" Filia looked back to Xellos. He looked to her with a serious expression. "We don't know how this has affected me either. And I can't have unknowns about myself," Xellos stepped forward, moving towards an open section of floor, Filia stared on in apprehension.

"Alright. First things first. Lets see if you've altered physically. Change forms please," Somari ordered. Xellos let his power release, his human form disappearing into the swirling cone of darkness. Filia hadn't seen this form since that night in the forest, she could still see the floating angry eyes and fangs, little streaks of red lightning crackling within the swirling vortex. He still looked the same...except...no...looking hard she could make out what looked to be little sprinkles of gold slowly floating around inside the vortex as well, the specks as small as the finest glitter, You had to be looking for them though, otherwise you would lose them in the fast spinning storm of demonic energy that was Xellos.

"Interesting. Seems you have also absorbed a bit of Filia's pure spirit into yourself. Fascinating!" Somari declared as she made a note in a book, Xellos returning to his humanoid form. "Ok, now I want you to try casting some dark magic, outside please," Somari pointed to her left towards a large glass door leading out to a patio. Xellos obliged and walked toward the doors and outside. Looking up into the sky, he pointed his hand upward and concentrated his power into his hand. Firing a blast of green energy into the air, the projectile went rather high up before exploding in a blast so big it covered the sky for a moment before settling, the clouds that were in the sky now completely gone for miles.

"Well that looked about right. Did you feel anything different?" Somari asked. Xellos shook his head in negative, "No extra effort needed or anything. It felt the same as it always did". Somari nodded as she took down more notes. "Ok, come back inside, I've got another one I want to try," she jogged back inside with the pair following her. She went to a bowl of water on the table. Grabbing a pair of tongs she picked up a small vile and dipped it in the clear liquid, pulling up the now full vile she put a cork in the top. Drying it off she motioned for Xellos to stand in the clear section of floor. Then without warning she threw the vile at him, hitting his arm and shattering the vile. He yelled in pain as the liquid started to steam on contact. Filia gasped in realisation 'Holy water!'. "Are you insane!?" she yelled as she rushed for the towel and ran to his side to rub the liquid off.

"Only a little. But do you notice how it's not affecting him nearly as much as it should be?" Somari said matter of factly as she continued her note taking. Filia paused her actions and took a hard look at his arm, while it was steaming on contact with him, it wasn't dissolving him at all. The last time he touched purifying water was when he grabbed her wet hand at Valwins lake, and that small contact had nearly removed his whole hand.

"Whilst I DO NOT appreciate how you came to this conclusion, she has a point," he remarked to the worried dragoness. "It kinda feels like I've been splashed with boiling hot water, but otherwise I don't think I took any real damage from that," he said curiously.

"Alright, now how about we try-"

"NO! No more trying! No more testing! At least right now, please?" Filia implored, her eyes looking up at Xellos. "Please Xellos. Can we just, give it a rest for now? These tests are starting to get outrageous and dangerous," she looked about ready to cry from his point of view.

"But Filia. If we don't know how these changes are affecting us, it could leave us vulnerable at a very dangerous time," Xellos reached over and grasped her hand in his. "We'll test things out on me first, then we'll work on some safer tests for you, ok?" He tried his best to comfort her, hoping she'll see reason.

"Fine!" She snapped. Yanking her hand from his as she stood up straight. "If you want to put your life at risk with some stupid tests, you'll do it without me here to bother you. I can't just sit back and watch you hurt yourself," she turned and walked away, tears falling from her eyes.

"Filia wait! Where are you going?" He called out to her.

"I'm going home!" she called back over her shoulder as she stormed out of the library, leaving the monsters behind.

There was a beat of silence between them until Somari spoke, "well, all things considered I think she's taking this rather well," she said as she turned back to the desk and grabbing another instrument, Xellos's eyes following her. "So, shall we continue?"

Xellos sighed in resignation, nodding his head.