· · · · · · ·
Stupid, stupid, stupid! She should have ignored him.
Filia had a track record of four consecutive years of never once losing her self control (at least not fully) and hadn't tried attacking him for seven years straight. And now this. He'd be bringing this up for years to come. "Once a dragon, always a dragon."
That was probably what had gotten her off balance. Taunting Xelloss had become a second nature, so much she just did it without thought.
And now he was here, where things were likely to go wrong much more profoundly. Things just did when Xelloss was around. She dared pray to Rangort that Val keep control, that he wouldn't transform. She hadn't prayed in years and this were not ideal circumstances, in a ruined kitchen with Xelloss floating around. He better not be blocking her spiritual channels.
She almost slipped on a patch of wet moss, which elicited a mocking laughter. "You seem to have difficulty navigating today. Perhaps you should see a doctor."
Filia counted eleven dancing kittens with teacups and realized she needed a double serving before she was calm enough to reply.
"Why would I waste a doctor's valuable time when the cause is my natural devil sense responding to your presence? I'm glad though that you admit you're a plague. Alas, I shall have to accept a cure is not within my grasp," she declared, dramatically throwing a hand to her forehead. There was a grating sound behind her, she couldn't help but steal a glance.
Xelloss was caught in the twitches.
"Maybe you should question why you're so vulnerable to this disease, miss Filia. The other dragons do just fine."
She said nothing this time. The reason he already knew, after all. Her son was in danger.
The kitchen was little more than a large cave, used mainly by the elves that prepared the monthly nutritional blocks for the dragons that had come to work here. Those were bland tasting cubes thrown into cauldrons with boiling water, Filia had fed on it for a while before discovering the wonderful diversity of human cuisine.
Filia filled the smallest cauldron with water and huddled close to the fire, eager to gain some warmth in the nocturnal, subterranean cold. Sounds indicated Xelloss was making a mess, but Filia forced herself not to get worked up. Instead, she channeled her irritation onto the lack of proper stove, sorely wishing for access to those little holy fire spells lost to her once she left Vrabazard's service.
The water was nearly done boiling when Xelloss had gotten too bored waiting for a reply. A swarm of cup sized black cones suddenly twirled on the cauldron's edge and around Filia.
"Speaking of the thing that we shall not discuss, you have a strange idea of keeping that secret safe, you're doing a poor job coming here," he said, voice dim and from all directions. She kept staring at the water.
"I was heading to Sailoon, but I got a divine message that I was to come here," she said through gritted teeth.
"I thought the Fire Dragon King didn't give you calls anymore?"
"This really is none of your business, you know."
"Considering the massive coincidence of my work here and your arrival, I say someone is trying to make me your business."
Coincidence, sure. The messages had started right after Xelloss had left.
"I'd love to know what is going on just as much. Here I come and all of the sudden, dragons are utilizing tools? And then you show up and also have an interest in tools? This is absurd!"
"It quite is, is it not?" he chirped. "But you don't know whether they intend to use them, or have elves use them."
The water was boiling. She dipped the kettle in and let it fell, after which she placed in the tea. It was not an acceptable way of brewing, but this kitchen was so poor it didn't even have a spoon for her to use.
"That's not your usual tea," Xelloss said, turned back to human projection.
"I lost my supply on the way here. The elves gave this to me."
She would have added a rant about how she didn't like it at all, but she'd already passed her daily quota of things she agreed on with Xelloss. This quota was zero, by the way.
Once it was done, she shoved a cup towards him.
His expression soured the moment he took a sip. "This really is not acceptable."
He tossed the cup over his shoulder. Her self made cup which she had painstakingly hand painted. That one. It scattered on the floor with a sound that was more dramatic than it had any business being. Then again, Filia had seen too much break lately.
"Aaaah!" She lurched for it, which turned into a dive for the pieces halfway through. It wasn't just that the cup was broken — plenty of things broke when one shared a home with Val and Jillas — but that he had broken it. Not the first time either, off course, but it still got to her. What business did he have ...
Straightening up, she held out the broken shards. "Fix it!"
"Why?"
She pulled open the nearby untouched cabinet with her tail and showed him the supplies. The cups were simple clay half spheres that smelled of earth.
"Or we're drinking from these from now on."
She could see him weigh the benefits of one act against another : irritate her by leaving the cup broken and miss her degradation of serving him tea, or do something and get her irritation over serving him tea ... it could go either way.
After a moment, and without a word, he tapped his staff on the ground and the cup reassembled itself.
"Did he just fix something?"
Filia's head swayed to the entrance of the kitchen cave.
There stood Milgazia with a mortified expression, wide eyed Memphis close behind him.
Oh, right.
Oh, Red Dragon God Siephied.
She should have acted like she was a terrified young priestess at the sight of the Dragon Slayer, cowering, weeping or struggling to retain a stoic demeanor. Short of actually revealing Val was an Ancient Dragon, nothing would draw as much attention as treating the devil that nearly brought the local dragon tribes to extinction as just a obnoxious neighbor.
Now she had a whole dragon clan that was terribly curious about just why she got on such a familiar base with Xelloss? Was there any way she could tell that story without mentioning Val?
"Ah, mister Milgazia, miss Memphis, would you also like some tea?" Xelloss said. "I'm assuming this blend must be your preferred flavor. You can have it all."
Milgazia's expression became a little more of the unreadable face she was used to seeing on transformed dragons.
"What's going on here, Filia Ul Copt?" he asked.
Was she just imagining that condescending tone, an echo of her order's rich array of distaste, or was he really judging her as a disgraced one? With Milgazia it was as unusually hard to tell, this already in comparison to other transformed dragons.
"A failing tea party," Xelloss said, holding up one finger. "This tea is absolutely inexcusible. Miss Filia, we ought to go shopping. I believe there's a nice little town not too far from here."
"We're not going shopping! I need to be sparing with my money,"Filia snapped before she caught herself.
"What about your blooming business?"
"Investments and banks. I only withdrew as much as I needed and knowing your tea preferences, I am not paying!"
Also, those banks could give away my location if I withdraw from any unusual location. Filia was certain by now that the dragons down south were not actively affiliated with these dragons. She would like it to stay that way.
Granted, her need to counter Xelloss aside, this tea really wasn't okay at all. She could spare a little money to buy something better and get some candy and other goodies for the family. They all needed some cheering up.
"He has tea preferences. And you know them," Milgazia stated.
"Naturally. We cooperated during the Dark Star campaign, during which I discovered she sets excellent tea. This really is a rare art, you see. Off course, the right ingredients and location are also a must."
"Let me rephrase my question. What is the meaning behind both of you being here?"
"Obviously, we're going to be making magic vessels," Xelloss said. "I was sent to retrieve them, but as it stands, there is nothing to retrieve, now is there?"
Ah, so he was being liberal with interpreting his orders again. Didn't Zelas know how he was? Or were her vague orders intentional? Then there was the entirely plausible option there were additional orders Xelloss didn't mention.
"You intend to stay here? For how long?" Milgazia said through clenched jaw.
"That will depend on our progress."
"And who said I was going to cooperate? Maybe you're not a part of Earthlord Rangort's plan at all," she snapped. "I'm under no obligation to help you until I know that!"
"Oh really?"
Dumb question. There were so many ways he could sour her life, like telling people about Val, sabotaging her any of the cannon factories, buying the banks, ...
"Y-you're not afraid he's going to kill you if you keep being this disrespectful?" Memphis squeaked. Gone was the confident young elven lady, replaced by a shy, stuttering damsel. The picture perfect of how Filia had been expected to act.
Their expectations were probably so much worse than reality, or perhaps it was reality to them. She had no idea how Xelloss acted around people who didn't entertain him.
Seven years ago, by all she had known her behavior towards Xelloss had been suicidal. She had not learned yet how tolerant he was. However, at that time she had believed him to merely be a good warrior, not a demideity. Those of the Kataart Mountains knew better.
"Lord Milgazia, please be at ease. Xelloss isn't going to kill anyone, he doesn't have to. Just go with whatever he wants and prepare for irritation."
"I see. Xelloss, are the magic vessels all you want?"
"Indeed. And it appears to likewise be the will of Earthlord Rangort."
"So, something happened during the Dark Star incident that made you two figure out how to make them?" Memphis asked.
"Ah, indeed. Such an interesting story that is," Xelloss started.
Filia was surprised his answer didn't include the word secret, but it became apparent quickly that he was angling to find out just how much Milgazia knew already.
Xelloss did an excellent job of telling the absolute truth in a way that completely avoided any Dark Star Dugradigdu related things to her son, or just how integrated he was in the Ul Copt household. Knowing Lina, and perhaps Milgazia too, he got the whole blueprint out.
Milgazia knew what all dragons knew by now of Lina and her battles against the Hellmaster and the Dark Star. Milgazia had gotten confirmation for this during his time traveling with her.
Lina had censored certain things. Milgazia knew nothing about Volphied's involvement, Lina probably had considered it too much of a stretch on his belief to tell about world destroying gods. Milgazia did know Xelloss had been there and had aided in name of the devils of this world not wanting another world to do the destruction. He also knew of the massacre of the ancient dragons, but seemed to have a hard time accepting it as true on Lina's word alone. The few others he had told this flat out didn't believe the Ancient Dragons had not been hatching malicious things, even if they believed in a beat that the massacre had happened.
All the time, Memphis stood at Milgazia's side slowly rebuilding the tower of her confidence. Xelloss's breezy tone and congenial attitude might be to blame, or perhaps she was good at pulling herself together. Elves did not have a sense for devils as dragons did, but they did have spells that allowed them to see onto the astral plane. If she was seeing him right now for what he really was, she was doing the right kind of adapting, if not, Filia hoped she wouldn't let her guard down.
Or perhaps it was the strange elvish tea, which she had finished almost entirely by the end of the Dark Star history.
Memphis was the one to pipe up with a story of her own, namely that which explain why they were doing this project to begin with.
The official story was that now the barrier was down, devils were spreading out across the world and they had to prepare for the plot that the remaining three lords were doubtlessly hatching.
The unofficial story was that Lina Inverse was putting a dent in the world's devil hierarchy and the dragons and devils thought this meant something.
They weren't sure what, but it made them all nervous. Especially after it became clear that casualties on the side of good weren't averted and there was a whole priest clan of one of the gods missing. The dragons wanted to unite and form a singular nation.
With a few marked questions from Xelloss, it became clear they had no idea about Lina's use of the Giga Slave or the exact details of her encounter with Fibrizo. What would these dragons do if they knew? Her own clan ... she would be marked for execution after she had served her purpose.
Ragradia's dragons were different, more likely to go out of their way and help those who needed it. They held the legacy of their god in high regard, a god who had been unusually sympathetic to the plight of the short lived mortals.
Wistful thinking, but maybe she could eventually even tell them about Val? Telling them about the Giga Slave might give a good hint of their response, after all, Lina lived with that ability without using it wantonly, while Val was a different person than Valgarv. If Val could grow up alongside dragons, it would solve so much problems.
Wanton optimism peeked into Filia's mind again, despite her more rational thoughts trying to usher it out.
Xelloss had all the explanations he wanted, and so told Milgazia what was to be done. Xelloss and Filia would work on speeding along the creation of magic vessels, he specifics would be detailed later. Without a word of protest, the elder agreed.
It disturbed Filia to be in a situation where a devil threatening a dragon into compliance, however subtly, was something that gave her a sense of safety. It was true, though. Val didn't need to be noticed. Xelloss was his usual annoying self and perhaps there was a similar plot at work as the one the gods had created against Dark Star Dugradigdu. Who the enemy was would remain to be seen.
· · · · · · ·
Filia returned to the village for a poor night's rest and was woken early by Memphis, who told her that Milgazia had sort of hushed up the strange events inside the ruins. Everyone off course knew Xelloss was here, but the fine details were missing. Fine details like the ex priestess of Vrabazard being 'friends' with him.
"He's not my friend," Filia grumbled as she came down the stairs.
"On the scale of devil interaction, you should fall somewhere at being injured for your insolence even if you're necessary. You're fine."
"Tss, you should see how miss Lina treats him. Xelloss is an occasional colleague," Filia said. "Miss Elena, are the children awake yet?"
"Shall I wake them?" Xelloss said.
Filia groaned. Trespassing as usual, he might have been around already on the astral plane.
"No. You'd j—"
He was gone already. There was a yelp and a sharp crack from the cellar where Val slept, causing Filia's breath to freeze. Val had mostly likely grown an oversized limb into or against something, she dearly hoped that wasn't a supporting column.
The house creaked dangerously as if in response to her thoughts.
"Is the house going to survive Xelloss?" Memphis asked.
"Eh, maybe not," Filia said. Please don't go downstairs or offer to fix the damage.
Jillas, Palu and Gravos came thundering down the stairs, worry on their faces.
"Don't worry, Xelloss just started Val," Filia quickly said. "In his usual way."
"Hey, Jillas! Uncle gave us permission! You're allowed to use the smith shop!"
"Really?" Jillas bounded down the stairs and starting ranting about his ideas, and Memphis actually managed to keep up.
That was a swing around on behalf of Milgazia. When Xelloss and Val appeared from the cellar, she side eyed the priest while nodding at the plotting elf and vulpen. He gave an apologetic shrug and mouthed that might have been, "It'll make nice explosions".
"Val, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, but then Evil Wizard Cone Person Thingy stepped on my wi-leg." Another breath held, but it was apparent quickly that Memphis was too busy with Jillas to notice slips of tongue. Filia remembered to quietly thank the gods the elf didn't run around with the astral plane sight spell active, it would have given Val away in an instant.
"Val! We don't call him nice things today. He's been rude tonight," she said as she led the group into the kitchen, where Elena was already preparing breakfast.
Val climbed on the table, but she pulled him off and set him on a chair. "He's gonna stick around some more?"
Filia nodded. "We're under contract together."
"Like with Dark Star?" Palu asked. Another nod from Filia.
"Hey, kid, what do you mean today? Is that a habit of yours? A not sleep drunk one?" Memphis asked as she claimed herself a seat at the table.
"Evil Cone Thingy comes by all the time," Val said with a yawn. "I always say hello, but we sometimes like him less so how I say it depends."
"That was hardly a hello," Xelloss said.
"You stepped on my ... leg."
"Knock it off you two. That is the best hello you're going to get, Xelloss. Miss Memphis, I take it you'd like to eat with us?"
"She's here to spy on you," Xelloss said with an overcoat of chipper. He opened an eye, and Memphis's demeanor cracked with a flinch.
"Eh eh, yes. Maybe. Sort of," Memphis said stiffly. "I didn't mean to offend, I just ... ehm ... "
"Don't worry, Memphy," Palu said. "I hear you've wrecked towns, so he'll probably like you."
"I don't wreck them carelessly!"
Filia couldn't suppress a smug little smile. She was going to like Memphis, as she usually ended up doing for all of Lina's friends.
Memphis stayed for breakfast, and unfortunately so did Xelloss. Woe was had.
At least this woe was adequately predicted, as Memphis explained Filia's workspace was be expanded to accommodate Xelloss and receive priority ground. They would be moved to the grand hall and a sleeping chamber would be arranged. It was a subtle hint they wanted her to work full time and get out as quickly as possible.
"Great, then you can move your pack out of this cramped house," Xelloss said. "Did you know there's a cracked founding column?"
There was a collectively groan from the family.
"Do we have to?"
Xelloss opened one eye and glanced at Memphis while leaning his staff in Val's direction.
He had a point. Filia had been keeping Val either inside or far away from the village, just to be safe. There were still elves in the ruins, but they were less likely to run into Val. Plus, if Val was close to Xelloss, he could block out view with his astral body.
"There's no playmates up there," Val said, flying by the point at mach 2. "It's only fun for Evil Cone Thingy cause he gets to feed cause I wouldn't like it."
"Well, I'll decide after I see my new workspace," Filia said. "Perhaps it'll be a lot of fun up there exploring the ruins and there's a lot more magic there."
"Maybe," Val muttered.
She'd explain him later about the potential safety issue, when Memphis was gone.
"Was there anything you wanted, miss Memphis?" Filia asked. "Otherwise I'd like to get on our way."
"Oh! Yes. Miss Filia, uncle Milgazia would like you to consult on the material to create the magic vessels from, so you'll have to pass by the import area. You have freedom to come along, right?"
What an odd question, did she think Xelloss had her on a leash or something?
"Sure. Xelloss, you watch over the children with miss Elena. Gravos, it would be appreciated if you could start packing, I'll teleport everything to the ruins once I'm back."
"Mom!"
"Right, I'll have a look around first, but I'm sure I'll convince you it's better there," she said with a wink. "Annoy Xelloss for me while I'm gone, okay?"
"Kay."
Xelloss raised a finger. "I'm here to obtain magic vessels, I never said anything about babysitting."
She gave him a hard, long stare while forcing back a raging rant at how he could afford to do this after all the trouble he usually put her though. He knew why it would be useful if he stayed close to Val when they were going to be moving out, he was just angling for a debate.
With a hard shove, she pushed her chair against the table.
"Come on, miss Memphis, show the way."
"I'd wish you a good day, miss Filia, but it would be unfair to give you false hope."
"Oh, shut up." She was not going to let him sour her mood.
· · · · · · ·
Filia and Memphis went to the import area by wing, landing on the south side of a tall mountain where a plateau had been carved out. Caves were used as storage.
Filia had been doom thinking when she had assumed she'd gotten the bad clay to work with. All clay they imported was disastrous. Clearly these dragons had no idea what they were doing.
As Filia in dragon form prodded the drying clumps, she asked where it came from.
"We get it from the lakes nearby," Milgazia informed her.
"Riverland clay is better than the gravelly earth from these mountains," Filia said. "I'd like to get some from a flat land beyond the Kataart mountains, but I'll need help digging it up and transporting it. Since we don't know how many vessels we'll have to make before we figure it out, it should be a lot."
"Do try to make them breakable."
"Excuse me?"
"Do understand that now that Xelloss is involved, it may become prudent that we can destroy the vessels in time of need."
"Such as?"
"They may intend to use the neutralizing effect of fusion magic to break free the devil king of the north."
"Why would they only do so after all that time?"
"The seal is too strong for any of them to break due to its anchor in the magic of the land itself."
"I see."
She didn't say she would in fact make them too breakable. Not only would Xelloss notice if she underperformed, she didn't really want to. For all her misgivings on the gods, when they did plan it was for the best of the world.
The journey to Dills required an escort due to the heavy devil population, so much that Filia could not attribute her safe arrival to anything less than divine intervention, or perhaps Xelloss. Not a couple of hours passed or there would be an attack by air.
It didn't help that Milgazia's presence had an uncanny tendency to make the passing of time seem slower. He said a lot of things Filia felt were meant as jokes, but they were ... flat, somehow. Testing. Trialling. Memphis as one pointed pleaded her to just play along and pretend to be amused.
Testing and trialling proved to be a theme for the day.
There was an allegiance with Dills, so they easily got permission to dredge the riverlands. Less easily was the actual dredging.
The dragons needed a lot of instructions to properly get the clay out, and Filia herself was improvising transport techniques and dirt digging. She wasn't adequate for it and so they all returned in a most muddy fashion. Their only consolation was a better clay.
Good grief, that felt like a consolation prize?
It did, Filia realized. She was amongst dragons again, her own kind, but it was not as before. She felt she ought to enjoy their presence, but there was little to relate about now. A distance existed beyond the numbness that Milgazia's presence seemed to affect in everyone after a few hours. This distance became all the more obvious the longer the silence went on. When the group entered the ruined temple, there was no more escaping the weary glances, no more blaming them on devil swarms and muck. They were for her.
Did she team up with the detestable Xelloss? All those thoughts came in the voice of the grand elder of her clan. Once, she would have been the same, judging an outsider as herself like that.
Well, perhaps she would have been worse. Nobody here was declaring her betrayal despite having far more concrete evidence of such than her Elder had been presented with.
It didn't make it a pleasant experience, though. Filia's grudgingly admitted she didn't need Xelloss to sour her mood today.
The deeper they went, the strange the rock became. No longer simple gray, there were veins of sapphire blue cross through the walls. Filia felt the holy power increase within them.
Ragradia's hall of worship was enough to house a hundred golden dragons wings wide. Blue light poured into dusty air from only recently carved windows, reflecting weakly on the muddied basins and rivers that ran throughout the hall. No sunlight, but that of holy power.
A statue as tall as that of Vrabazard stood at the end of the hall, entirely of the intense blue stone. It was no beacon of power, but nevertheless impressed Filia. The face of a god she had never seen and would never see, knowing so brought her a sorrow.
That's when she heard the sounds. Gargling, laughing, whispered words of hate came from behind the low dust. Though drowned by godly power, Filia became aware of the dim sting of devil aura.
There, in the alcoves of this hall of worship were the prisons of the captured devils. Those few that had not yet disintegrated themselves were kept here to be drained, so her guide explained without a hint of concern. All of them were lesser devils, so low they had to posses matter to manifest. Clinging to this matter meant they still existed even here.
Some had eyes, staring at her with hate. It wasn't easy for her to ignore them, not when the devils she knew were so alive to her, both Xelloss and Valgarv once upon a time.
Pity came uninvited, and so was shame for feeling it. Both feelings she tightly wrapped up and until the fall of night she was the perfect stoic dragon. She spoke her gratitude for the arrangements, as she had been taught at the fire temple, and more covertly thanked Milgazia for not letting rumors go out of bounds. How she'd have been looked at if 'tea parties with Xelloss' had been on her resume wasn't something she wanted to know.
He said he wasn't sure how long it would be before she'd find out, if she planned to make a habit of tea with and snapping at Xelloss. Right. Though he was much younger than her Elder, he reminded her of him in that moment.
It wasn't a good day and it wouldn't be a good night either.
· · · · · · ·
She ran through the green halls, chasing the center. The temple was no different in concept than other dragon temples, she knew where to go.
In alcoves the skulls of ancients were stacked, all pieces with crude metal, their last purpose in existence to be a morbid decoration.
All skulls were Val.
Every so now and then the Elder would come here, she knew, imagined, realized through the power of dreams.
A test conducted with newfound magic, perhaps he could pry out the bow of light after all. Desire, hunger, power, righteousness. He liked to see the skulls there, a memorial to a victory he took no joy in. Joy was not of his world.
Duty warranted diligence.
Pride warranted trophies.
Empty sockets around a green orb laid out in the middle of the hall, because sometimes he liked to call onto the spirits of the Ancients to persuade them to unleash the spell.
Her Elder before her.
Xelloss, the devil from the stories, he was behind her.
She didn't matter and her Elder didn't care if she died, said it with more words than he'd needed to. The skulls around him turned dark, eyes alight with old power. Her Elder was the least haunting.
He had no remorse.
He did have a flair of using the dead as decoration.
And the dead, every time he summoned them, they would see their own skulls around them.
Holy dragons should not be able to be sadistic.
When she died, he burned the flesh off her skull and set her as a new socket for the summoner's orb.
She was the heretic.
· · · · · · ·
Her fancy clock was close to midnight, she wasn't likely to be caught. The medium in charge of the crystal ball network was vast asleep, as she would have been if she hadn't woken up in sweat.
Really, this wasn't such a big deal even if she did get caught. She was just borrowing it, she'd bring it back. There'd be some difficulty saying why wanted to borrow a crystal ball in the middle of the night.
Maybe she'd just blame that on not wanting Xelloss to know she spoke to Sailoon, and he was gone for the night (she strangled her curiosity, tied it to a rock and threw it in a frozen lake). It was true she would rather have this conversation without Xelloss around, the person she spoke to was simply someone not from Sailoon. Luna had indicated she didn't want anything to do with the dragons, and Filia figured they might exploit it if they knew about the contact.
Quietly, she slipped into the medium room, then out again. Once she was at a spot the glow and energy of her teleportation wasn't likely to draw attention, she returned to her new room. It was still messy due to the recent move (again) but manageable enough once she found a vase with the right top to hold the ball.
She needed a minute or five to steel herself.
Luna Inverse was ... tough when she didn't like something you did. She didn't yell, she didn't rage or rant, but there was something about her that made one feel like they were stripped naked in front of a crowd.
Truth be said she had avoided contacting Luna about the change of plans exactly because she knew she'd be put on the block for it.
To her surprise, Luna was awake enough to answer quickly. There wasn't even a grudging remark about her time.
"Filia, anything up?"
"Well, you see ... I got a signal from Earthlord Rangort to go the the Kataart Mountains, got commissioned to help create magic vessels, Xelloss arrived after a few days, and now we're going to work together."
"Aha ... run that by me again. More details."
This was going to hurt, but she obliged anyway. She wouldn't have called Luna if she wasn't prepared for it.
"Okay. Got it. Val and his loving marriage with secrecy is at jeopardy due to the sudden return of an old non-flame responsible for the death of his parents, while the mother is haunted by that tragic crime she didn't actually do and memories of her mentor figure betraying her. Meanwhile she's conflicted over the presence of this tall and dark but sadly not brooding man who keeps popping up. Goody, this makes my subscription to the soap club redundant. I'll file to be unsubscribed."
In Lunarian, that translated to sympathy. Probably.
"Miss Luna, I know you believe I should just get up and leave, but perhaps if I stay and cooperate, it will serve Earthlord Rangort to protect Val. Even if those dragons that attacked him were not directly sent by a god, they were hostile. Nothing better than a god on my side can protect Val."
"Tss, tss. Gods. Dash your hopes before they do, at least you'll get to keep the pieces. Not saying you should scram, though. Clown's there on orders of his boss, so the defective devils are at play. Which faction you think is more likely to turn your son into a macabre artwork?"
Don't trust the gods that won't let you know them, better the devil that does. Filia hadn't forgotten.
"Now let's go over the decision to go to the Kataart Mountains in the first place. That was such a wise move, Filia," Luna said.
"Miss Luna, I'm not being controlled by the gods. It's just ... you don't know what it feels like for a dragon to be near holiness. It makes us want to follow it." The last she spoke very quietly. In front of Luna Inverse, part of Siephied yet all human and proud of it, it felt like a shameful thing to say.
"You let those things in your mind when you channel them for directions. Are you sure they don't rig the door when they left?"
"I don't feel very different than before I became a priestess, miss Luna. I can't say much else."
"I can. Ever wondered why the fragments of Siephied and Ragradia attached to a human soul and not dragon souls? Maybe the fragments did, once, but those souls don't last."
"Let's hope that's not the reason," Filia said. She'd become weary of saying she was sure of anything in this world.
"I'd feel better having certainty, but Rangort can give me a hard time too if I mess with its plans. Come to Zephyria once you're done, I want to check whether you were tampered with."
"Miss Luna, don't you think you're trying to see doom a little too hard?"
"Nah, I don't. The worst you can lose in the world is yourself. You'd being willing to die for some people, but think about it for a second. It's just your life you'd lose. If you lose yourself, you might not be the kind of person to care anymore about those people."
"I ... " Filia didn't know what to say to that. The Sages and Knights, organic and astral; identity wasn't the same for them.
"What exactly do the dragons want with fusion magic? That shit's scary, you know. It can be controlled without spells, that's some mighty mental component to it. Want the dragons and gods to have that?"
"I don't believe the dragons would misuse its power. We've never been out for conquering lands and I honestly don't believe mister Milgazia and mister Azonge have such intentions."
"Side effects happen. You got a kid out of death. A kid clean of his former life, right? Mostly anyway."
"Don't. Not here. Let's talk another time."
"Better be soon. What magic's in the place?"
"The power of the Claire Bible and the remnant of Ragradia," Filia said. "I don't think the power of Lei Magnus has much influence."
"Get familiar with it."
"I will. Goodnight, miss Luna."
"S'morning here."
"Oh really? It's that late already? Even with the time difference, that shou—"
"Filia. Clowns. Clocks."
"Hnnnngh ... off course he did."
"That's not your crystal ball, is it?"
"No," Filia said, dropping her head to her hand and trying to figure out how to explain this to the Elders.
"Gonna be fine. In fact, my little sister tends to mention funny details in her letters. Apparently, Milgazia knows a spell from the Beast Monarch. Ask him to teach you. It can't hurt to have some dark magic at hand."
Filia managed a smile. Luna suggested a potentially touchy fact to be used for blackmail. Well, that was something Filia didn't mind doing if it was for the right reasons, or at least non-harmful reasons.
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