Val's life in Kataart had become a steady routine. An hour or so with his family, the next eight hours with Claire, then his family again with early sleep. A new kind of normal, already broken this morning. At breakfast, his mother gorged down food as if she was Lina Inverse. She even ignored her tea!

"Did I miss something?" Xelloss asked after the last bread disappeared.

She shook her head.

"Did I miss anything at any other time?"

"That's a secret," she said.

Unaffected save for a twitchy eyebrow, Xelloss leaned back in his chair. "Yes and no questions do not work with my catch phrase. You have done something that required you to supplant lost energy. It's no secret that I missed something."

"I'll use your catchphrase as I please and it's none of your business!"

"Mom slept bad," Val said. "I think gods did something cause there is lots of weird energy all around the house at night."

"Val! Don't tell him!" she snapped. Startled, Val dropped his fork.

Dejected, he said, "It was creepy, mom. It made me feel happy like holy magic does, but you looked so sad this morning. I just thought Xelloss might know something."

"Xelloss is a devil, he is the last person I want help from. Not that I need help on this."

"It sounds like you have an interesting secret," Xelloss said, leaning with his elbows on the table. "Maybe I should pry it out."

"This is one secret that will be mine alone."

That sentence lingered in Val's mind. He was not the only secret of his mother?

He would have asked if not for the fact that he too had a secret for his mother. Xelloss had made him promise he would not tell anyone about Claire just yet, because they'd become afraid or paranoid. Maybe his mother's other secrets were like that. He was sure she would tell him soon. There was nothing wrong with secrets kept as long as you shared them in the future.

Val would have left the secrets behind him to finish his bacon and eggs in peace, but the theme went on in a different direction.

A roar down the hall announced the arrival of dragons. Without so much as knocking, a flock of elves and transformed dragons barged into their common room. Milgazia was at their head and Memphis at his side. This was Val's cue to leave.

He stuffed the rest of his food in his mouth and tapped Palu on the shoulder. "Wanna go play?"

"Sure!" Palu said. Val lifted Molly and they darted past the group, playing the part of insignificant kids.

They wouldn't be playing though. There was a crevice outside the temple where a wall had broken down. Val crawled in while Palu and Molly would stand guard closer to the door. Just in case fleeing was in order, Val could transform here and take off into the canyon without the enemy seeing him.

From here, a few roofs of the elven village stood out. A little further lay the scarred valley where Memphis often practiced with her Zenaffa. She was so lucky, being able to train with her monstrous power. Despite being less dangerous, Val could not do so.

Jillas had tried teaching everyone about traps and technology. It wasn't in Palu's hands and he'd moved on to more concrete construction craft, Val even less so. Only Molly held real promise, but that didn't mean Val couldn't fantasize sometimes. In late hours he'd pretended to be a genius architect, scribbling nonsensical calculations and silly machines. He'd dropped this pretense to try his hands at tending to the messenger doves, but that had become obsolete when the success of the factory allowed them to buy crystal balls.

"Gotta admit, that's a good hiding spot."

He startled. Floating above the crevice was Memphis, Zenaffa wings extended.

"Uhm ... yeah, but you spoiled it, it was Molly's turn to train her nose."

"Oh, did I?" She gave him a reprimanding look as she landed before the crevice, both hands on her hips. "I think you're not hiding from the foxes but from us."

Her eyes narrowed, and Val might have actually been scared if he hadn't ever seen his mother, Cone Thingy and Lina Inverse when they were angry. Memphis paled in comparison.

"Why would I?" Val asked.

"You're no human, not with those eyes and those footprints. Why do you hide after one silly little devil attack? I wiped the floor with them and you probably could hold your ground."

He crossed his arms and looked away, resisting the urge to make her move out of the way. Zenaffa or not, he could break that stupid girl's arms even if metal coated it.

"Are your parents here?"

"Huh? Mom's still talking to those rude people that barged into our quarters."

"It's not your temple," Memphis said as she inspected her fingernails. She wore gloves.

"What do you want?"

"Answers. More than a few elves saw the scene on the ice cream terrace, one of them knew the spell to look onto the astral plane. Xelloss's form was erratic and he got aggressive, then Filia drags him off. A god's energy was working around Milgazia, but your mother not, yet she was unaffected by Xelloss despite said Dragon Slayer being so murderous. And then there was you. With Xelloss's astral form a little out of the way you were kinda visible, except not. Why is there a spiky dragon shaped gap around you?"

Val gulped. "Ehm ... what is this about anyway?"

"Are you some sort of freaky fusion magic offspring of Xelloss and Filia?"

Val blinked twice before breaking out in choking laughter. It wasn't even a good joke, but it was just so ridiculous. Even Memphis couldn't help but laugh. Jillas found them before they'd gotten themselves together.

"What'so funny?" he asked.

"She thinks mom and Cone Thingy screwed and got me!"

"Haha! What have you been smoking, Memphy?" Jillas blurted out.

"N-nothing!" she said, offended even as she fought laughter. "It's just what they're saying. Uncle wants to ask but your mother and Xelloss have them caught in a counter answer conversation. If they're not your parents, why do you look so weird on the astral plane?"

Val shot a desperate look at Jillas, but the vulpen could only shrug.

"A devil curse!" Molly piped up. Val leaned out the crevice a little to see her and Palu run up to them.

"What do you mean?" Memphis asked.

"Cause miss Filia's on the devil wanted list, they ... ehm ..."

"Tried cursing her so she couldn't hide well anymore, but Val got in the way!" Palu finished it for her.

This would fall apart if his mother and cony thingy told another tale, but Val couldn't do anything about that.

"I never heard of that kind of curse," Memphis said. "Why didn't you say so before?"

"Eh, we didn't want to bother anyone," Palu said.

"I guess that makes sense. A dragon and a devil getting it on does sound too crazy," Memphis said. "And I don't think they like each other. Besides, I was there. I heard the joke uncle told, I believe they didn't do anything fishy in that alley. Nobody could, not after such a joke."

"What's wrong with Milgazia's jokes?" Val asked.

Four pairs of huge, disbelieving eyes settled on him.

"Don't ever tell a joke," Memphis said.

This conversation sure had taken a weird spin.

Xelloss phased in their middle right then, twitching and with one eye open. His right arm was acting odd.

"Val, ehm ... bring you to a safe place now. Oh hello miss Memphis. May-I-inquire-how-frequently-mister-Milgazia-t-ten ds-to-tell-his ... his ... "

Memphis had taken a few steps back and was starting to sweat. "Jokes? He told another one? Weird. He never does this when on business."

"Right. Miss Memphis, be so kind as to tell your tribesfolk to never encourage Milgazia to do such a thing," Xelloss said with a dangerous edge.

Without waiting for her reply, he grabbed Val and warped them both away. After a brief trip, he dropped Val before the entrance to Claire's dimension.

"Hey, Cone Thingy, are you okay? What happened just now? I don't get why you got angry yesterday either."

Xelloss gave Val the exact same look as Memphis and the vulpen had done earlier. Then he closed his eyes.

"I told Palu and Molly what to say just now, miss Memphis will spread it for us. This should cover that you have been seen, for now."

"Answer my question! Why do you and mom feel bad lately?"

"That's a secret. Run along now, miss Claire is waiting. And don't get into the comedy business."

Xelloss vanished with those cryptic words. Adults were weird.

When Val entered the sub dimension, he at once found Claire at his side. Sometimes the ghostly girly pretended to walk, but only during games that needed a hindrance for it to be fun. That she floated told Val she expected to have a conversation.

"What's on your mind?" Claire asked.

"They say mom and Cone Thingy are my parents. It's stupid, but I can't tell them any truth in reply. Who were my blood parents? Mom always said it was a miracle that I was born. Once I thought she didn't want to get into it cause adults are always weird about where babies come from. Cabbage patches, storks, carrots and other silly stuff," he said. "I actually believed the stork for a while cause doves bring little letters, so maybe bigger birds brought bigger things."

"They're not getting it on," Claire said. "I'd have noticed. Xelloss spends most of his free time making sure he remains undercover."

"Oh, I know they're not. Mom took me aside after miss Higgins started talking and explained me what sex was and if anyone ever said her and Xelloss did it, to not believe them since they had no evidence. Mom's always going on about not believing stuff unless you've got evidence. Truth's important and a right."

He grew out his wings then and folded them forward, running his fingers over the dark feathers. Val tried not caring for the truth of the past, because he also cared for the truth of his mother of here and now. He didn't want her to think he wanted them more than her. They were dead anyway. On the other hand, today he'd lied about his strange astral form, and he didn't know the truth behind that. Maybe that was one of the other things his mother hid.

Again he reminded himself that he hid Claire from his mother, and pushed away a strange sense of spite. He couldn't push away his curiosity anymore, though. A last, lingering doubt told him that perhaps there was some truth to the strange rumors, as irrational as he now knew the stork to be.

"Claire, I want to know about my real parents," he whispered.

"The ones you have now are not good enough?"

"No!" he held up his hands as if warding something away, flaring his wings. "No, but ... I'm just ... I don't know. I had other parents before, right? Can you make me remember?"

"I could reverse the flow of information. Access my Bible and ask nothing."

As they arrived at the spot where the Bible lay, he stretched his arms. With his child's size, he had to stand on his toes to grasp the sphere of light.

Being near the Claire Bible was pleasant, he could spend hours drawing on the old visions. Holy power had an appeal to dragons in the same way the presence of devils put them ill at ease, Val was no exception.

Claire faded from his side and the Claire Bible glowed a little brighter. After a moment she appeared again opposite of him.

"Close your eyes, and ask yourself."

That seemed too simple a key, but he did it anyway. Since he was at it, he decided to expand the question a little.

Where was I born?

An abrupt tide of knowing drowned his conscious thoughts out. In the darkness before him, a lady in white dress dress emerged, strange marks below her green bangs. A cape of white feathers cascaded from her shoulders. She pulled him into a gentle flow, deep into an abyss that felt familiar.

Drifting along with a flock of a kind darkness, he landed in a world so different from the human cities he grew up in. A world of howling wind, sharp rocks, sheltering nests and familiar feathers. There were no human shapes here at all, but there was more warmth than he saw with the golden and black dragons of these mountains.

Here lived the Ancient Dragons, first children of Siephied formed in honor of his closest sibling and himself. Their wings feathered like his own, though they lacked the harsher scales on the god's wings. They were creatures of great power tempered only by their gentle nature, born when Siephied's faith in creation still rang full of purpose. Before he lost faith in the cycle. Before he thought to give up his own existence to defeat Shabranigdu.

They drifted across the landscapes and refused to descend where anything lived out of fear of trampling it. The strongest took the shapes of humans and elves and beast folk and mingled with them to further peace. Every now and then there was a rotten apple, but benevolence governed their laws and rituals.

His parents were wise and calm, no more special than others, but all he could have hoped for. He had older siblings and younger siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins and grandparents, and he knew all their names. His own name was Valteira.

Strangely, he then remembered Filia Ul Copt in her small form and saw how imperfect she was. The parents he remembered were always patient and taught him well. He understood the cycle of nature so well he never even needed to question it, and he had never threatened a cat over a bird. Filia had not taught him so well, nor were peaceful solutions her every answer. His own parents, they'd loathe her aggression, her blackmail and her threats.

She was trying, though.

"Val, that's not you. You can get even more angry than Filia Ul Copt. Don't be unfair, that's the past," Claire said from somewhere unseen. "It's true, isn't it? The you of now isn't that one of the past."

True, as much as he disliked admitting it. Valteira was so happy, it would be nice if he could be that same person. Or rather, have that life. Young Valteira knew no hate or distrust. He never would have been satisfied with the death of other dragons. As these memories mingled with the past, Val became uneasy and when he tried to remember what had brought him into his new life, he just didn't want to anymore. The miracle his mother spoke of so gently, as if it was a blessing, it felt dreadful now he dug into these depths of memory.

"Why not? Why don't I want to know?" he asked himself. Valteira knew the golden dragons had killed his people.

And then it struck. Just a vague memory of the skies when the golden dragons attacked first, skimmed over as he focused on the dragons. That date matched visions Claire had shown him in her Bible of other events, events within the barrier. The positions of the planets matched.

Valteira had been born seven hundred years ago.

Where had he been all that time, before Filia came along?

At this his mind revolted. If words existed for what he was on the verge of unearthing, he didn't know them. Only one thing came close. When he had been younger and more fearful, he had nightmares that he never told anyone about.

Molly and Palu had nightmares about monstrous humans attacking them, but Val had nightmares where he was the monster attacking his family. The most vivid of these was the blurriest, vaguest of all, only strong in the sensation of it. He hurt his mother and enjoyed it because she was a golden dragon. Her blood was of those who'd killed his family. They had existed before he could speak, before his mother told him why he had to fear golden dragons.

They matched with what he would find here, he felt it. With every ounce of willpower, he pushed away from it. The lady in white folded her arms across her chest and diminished along with the feeling, a sad expression on her face.

Still, he remembered everything for as far as he'd dug it up. Now his conscious wasn't overflowing with that dreadful feeling, he found snippets of other things that also had a strong feeling to latch onto. More pleasant ones.

There was man in orange coat, the only thing he felt worth remembering without agony. This man he cared for and trusted, something that had once meant everything only to be buried under that other sensation, that monster he might be.

The man was another father, different from his first. He left Val feelings both of fulfilled protection where there was a void, and great pain and rage ... not against him, but steered by him against the world. Val wanted to remember him, only stopped by the knowledge he'd also have to confront that other ...

... maybe Claire could help him sieve out what he wanted.

In the real world, or at least a world that felt more real, there was another ethereal lady. Claire was a more welcome sight, there were no horrors behind her. Yet her face was like she saw the horrors behind Val.

The Claire Bible dimmed until it was as dusk in the biomechanic landscape, and only she was a source of light. Claire froze and her lips did not move when he heard in his mind, "No."

She vanished.

"Claire ... Claire, what's wrong?" he called out. "Did I scare you? Come back!"

He jumped up and looked around, but she was out of sight. He left the memories for what they were and starting seeking. Not that he believed he could find a ghost, but he didn't know anything else. He'd done something wrong.

"Can we talk about something else tomorrow?" he heard after a little while.

"I did scare you, didn't I?"

"I cannot feel fear," she said. "But some things are ... unpleasant."

"Oh ... okay. Wanna play hide and seek?"

"That I will," she said, and all sounded normal again. He didn't poke any further, because some secrets were best left in peace.

· · · · · · ·

The next day no one disturbed their breakfast, though Xelloss was there and all the tea was gone. Business was back to normal, save for one depressed Jillas. Memphis's father had forbidden her to practice with Jillas, and he couldn't use the smith hall anymore. The dragons confiscated his cannons.

After breakfast Xelloss would have warped him to the Claire Bible, but when Azonge called Filia aside, Xelloss joined that conversation and Val had to wait again.

He sat around the corner of the hall that led from their private quarters to the public area. In a way, he stood guard against the climbing numbers that passed by today. They did not even try to be inconspicuous with their whispers.

"Because of her association with a filthy devil, Filia's personality has become twisted."

"He just grabbed lord Milgazia to force him to be cargo animal!"

"Must be a reason he tolerates her behavior and it can't be good ... "

"Who knows what they're doing within their work hall? We can't see anything when they're fusing magic. Maybe they're fusing something else."

"I say, it's a disgrace we must tolerate such a person in our midst."

"They claim a devil cursed the boy, but if that was true, why didn't she ask for our help in lifting the curse?"

"I wonder what Earthlord Rangort will reveal once she has served her purpose?"

More than ever it was clear to Val that they were in the middle of a den of murderers. He'd been four when his mother told him golden dragons had killed all others like him. Genocide was Val's first big word.

He'd feared golden dragons since then, but hadn't imagined he could hate them more. What he'd seen of his own people, how peaceful they were ... his mother's idea of introducing Val to her family when he was older and stronger now looked stupid. Nobody who saw a peaceful tribe like the Ancient Dragons and decided to wipe them out could be good.

Still, both his mother and Xelloss existed without belonging. There had to be many amongst the dragons, born without purpose to their destructive kin yet needing to pretend to be one of them. It was a world of demonic masks. Knowing this stifled fantasies of killing them all, but the blood lust didn't just die.

When a golden glow emerged from their living room (a elven office in shambles, before Filia redecorated), Val abandoned his post and joined the rest of the family. They hadn't walked back, something bad had to have happened.

Within the room he met a surreal sight : Xelloss wrapped in blankets on the couch, twitching despite the lack of insults. Val's mother just sat down with two tea cups, she handed one to Xelloss. Jillas handed her a blanket too, she took it without thinking.

"Mister Gravos, I'm thinking about brewing some of my tribe's medicine, will you help me with the fire?" Elena called from the kitchen. Gravos lumbered off.

"Okaaaaay ... " Val said.

Palu and Molly had taken crayons and paper to the table, just to Xelloss's side of the couch. Val joined them, grabbing some paper for himself.

"What did the dragons want this time?" he asked.

"The same what miss Memphis told you. And then lord Milgazia decided to lighten up the mood ... " His mother shivered as she spoke.

"When they teleported back, Xelloss was like that," Jillas added. "Said' e needs to ground or something and e'll try anything. Even mortal methods of dealing with illness."

Val grinned. "Wizard Cone Thingy, you must be desperate if you lower yourself to the level of us feeble dragons."

"We have a truce," Xelloss muttered, pulling deeper into the wool. "I need sugar in my tea."

"As long as he stays on his side of the couch," Filia said as she grabbed the sugar bowl and turned it upside down over Xelloss's teacup. "The garbage is just here to feed on my negative emotions because he has no weakness to golden dragons and isn't affected by the ... the ... words. They are just words. Right?"

"You ruined my tea." Somehow, Xelloss looked better when he got annoyed with her.

Val leaned to Palu and whispered, "I don't get it."

Palu whispered back, "The elves figured out Cone Thingy is affected by Milgazia's jokes, so now they keep asking him to tell jokes whenever Xelloss is around. I heard them talk about while playing hide and seek with Molly earlier."

"Weird. I like his jokes," Val said, putting on his best imitation of Milgazia's voice. The dragon had this particular off-tone to his voice that was just right for his humor. "Especially that one about the cameldragon. The cameldragon flew down the mountain. The cameldragon arrived at the town. The cameldragon—"

"Nooooooo!" Gravos and Jillas screeched.

His mother scooted over to Xelloss's side of the couch, leaning on the devil as she pointed a shaking finger at Val. "As your mother I forbid you to repeat that!"

Dejected, Val put his crayon down. "Why not?"

"Because Milgazia is the Antifun," Xelloss said as he pushed Filia back to her side of the couch.

"Uh-huh," Val said sagely, deciding that this was one of the many weird Cone things, like his aversion to Justice Speeches. "Sorry about that. I won't do it again, so don't attack Milgazia, okay?"

Xelloss gave a sour hmmph noise and disappeared into the blankets.

"What if Milgazia's friends attack us?" Molly asked.

Silence fell over the room until Val's mother gave a haughty little laugh. "So what? Maybe our resident cockroach can finally learn to ward off people without overblown deathfests!"

"Cockroach? Overblown? Hmmph! Off course a egoistic dragon like you can't understand the way to be practical if it isn't her own."

"You have some nerve calling me egoistic after all you know about me!"

"Oh, forgive me, you're right. It must be so stressful for you, consistently being turned down on every application for a martyr job. I dare say, you haven't successfully held this position since ... since that time with ... miss Filia, isn't this the point where you make a pathetic effort to shut me up?"

"You just did it for me," she said, shoving his shoulder. He actually toppled over, and Filia worried.

It couldn't be Milgazia's jokes. They were probably covering up for the fact that Xelloss had contracted some sort of disease. Val bet that they just didn't want the children to be worried. They might have Molly and Palu convinced, but Val knew better.

Now if only he could do something, because the last thing he wanted was his mother facing off against the golden dragons on her own.

· · · · · · ·

"Can I be stronger?" he asked Claire the next day. "You know, cause Wizard Cone Thingy can get sick. What if we have to fight soon?"

He didn't want to say fight the dragons. Claire seemed to like them, but she hadn't been outside so she couldn't understand. She only saw things, she didn't feel anything and had a tough time with emotions she couldn't taste.

"Xelloss is not sick," she said. "At least not like you know it. He just had a devastating blow to his sense of self, which makes him very unstable. He still has all his powers, but it's like being stretched out."

"Isn't that the same as being sick?"

"Theoretically not. Would you like to use my bible? I'm sure through that I can explain the differences between injury, illness and mental issues. The latter is the only kind of ailment that can naturally happen to astral beings."

"No! I want to be stronger, Claire!" Val said. He crossed his arms and knew he sounded awfully like a petulant Xelloss, but he didn't care.

She hesitated long enough for Val to snap. "Why won't you? Is it about before? I knew it, you are scared!"

"I could help, but it'd mean bringing you close to some things you shouldn't know yet. Some truths are best if they remain a secret for a little while longer. Just like you are keeping me a secret for your mother," she said.

Irritated, he kicked at the nearest crystal, but it faded away in vacant blue before he hit it. "I know about that kind of secret, okay? I do get it. I am one of those secrets! And to be honest, I'm also afraid of my deeper secret, it's ... I just ... I don't know. Mom's in them ... Mom always said one day when I'm much stronger, she'd try introducing me to her family, slowly breaking the secret. So I get it, really. I won't dig into stuff I can't know yet, but I need to have a little, Claire!"

Her fingers dug into her arm, the cloth of her white sleeve crunching soundlessly. She was so frail in this form, he realize. It made sense that she was so careful, just like he and his whole family always had to be careful. That was exactly the problem though, he couldn't change anything about all this. He felt he had more power, he needed it.

"Claire?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"You know, I don't really need to know much. Just a little bit of that tall man in the orange raincoat. He had great power, yet looked just like a human and fought that way. That's what I want to be able to do. If I can fight like my big dragon self in a small form, I won't give away my secret when I try to help my family."

Claire had bare little expressions, but now something like sadness drew over her.

"You want to make sure you all live as long as possible?"

"That's what I've been saying!" he yelled, flaring out small wings.

She spoke more to herself than to Val when she said, "Right. Everyone deserves to live as long as possible. I cannot help them, but I can help this one here, so I should."

Val smiled brightly. "Thank you!"

"One thing before all, Val. As an Ancient Dragon, you have the strength of a thousand golden dragons," Claire said softly, but with a deeper echo than usual. "If you ever fire one laserbreath unrestrained by spell or willpower, you will destroy everything in a five mile radius of impact. Even before the genocide, there were instances of less pacifist Ancient Dragons, provoked in inhabited areas, that led to rumors of their violence. They were so pacifist they never trained enough to get a grip over their destructive potential."

That stunned him for a little bit. He had known he was strong ever since he accidentally turned a small forest into a crater simply by overcharging a defensive barrier spell. However, he'd never thought about what that meant about his power expressed through full sized dragon form.

Though, that was untrained dragons. He wasn't that. How it fit together he didn't know, but that man in the orange coat had taught him. He just knew.

Worry turned to joy when a sense crept up that he could use all that safely. Somehow. On top of that, if he could wield so much power they didn't even need Xelloss. He was sure Filia would be happier if Evil Wizard Thingy came by a little less. His smile turned into a grin, much to Claire's surprise.

"Claire, show me. I'm going to master all that power and then I'll be the family's protector. All evil cones can get lost unless they bring ice cream!"

There was a mild smile on her pale face, a tilted head. He couldn't tell what it meant when done by Claire, only that it was unusual to see her so nuanced. Maybe she was sad, maybe she calculated.

"Alright. Focus, I'll pull out a little. If you transform, don't panic."

When she faded entirely, Val knew what to do. He reached for the Bible and let its power pour into his mind. Before he could even wonder whether he should ask for anything, something snapped and his body distorted.

It was much like the first time he transformed into a human and had to hold onto that form despite how wrong it felt. The body sense of a dragon was adjusted for their dragon form, training this sense to operate with the wholly different human for was the first and most difficult task. It had become easier over time, but never did it become entirely right. This time, he let go of his human form to slip into something he hadn't realized he'd been missing.

As long as the light of transformation glowed he did not see or feel. He hoped he didn't accidentally knock down any walls or worse, damage Claire's Bible with all this magic. The sheer force of it was exactly as Claire had promised.

The world solidified before his eyes again, for as much as it could within this strange dimension.

To his surprise, he still had hands. No feathers either, nor a long neck. He stood up with lank ease, his legs standing him much taller than Claire's childlike form. The atmosphere shifted from biomechanic to crystallize and he saw his reflection just beyond the light of the Bible.

Staring back was an adult man with unruly, long hair.

A wide, silly grin spread on his face. He had grown up. It was the kind of thing many little human kids wanted, to grow up quickly so they could look the adults in the face and not be shoved aside anymore as a nuisance. Better yet, he had the build of a warrior. If he could use fight as well in this form as he had the idea he could, those dragons wouldn't be a problem.

He jumped up once, then another time, then sprouted his wings. Far from the plucks of raven stubble he had before, these wings stretched eight meters wide at best, and he could adjust their size. The sudden disbalance had him fall forward, but with quick reflexes his arms were beneath him.

Now focused on his arms, he turned them into dragon form easily, then back into human form. All the while he laughed, perhaps a little manic.

"Claire, this is so awesome!" he said as he crossed his legs to sit. Curling his wings forward and morphing his arms some more, he tested out just how simple this was. He didn't even need to mutter a spell. "What did you do?"

"Not all memories are images of past events. There is also muscle memory, language memory and sensory memory, and even genetic memory."

"Oh, you mean instinct," Val said.

"Some of those, but not all are instinct. What I helped you pull up here is proprioception. However, your equilibrioception has no improvement or you would not have fallen. Kinesthetically you seem to function fine, but let me know if anything feels off."

Claire sometimes used fancy words on the idea he'd ask if he didn't understand. It certainly was the case now, but he wasn't in the mood. He wanted to try out this new form, not get language lessons. There was this idea that he could chuck energy with his hands, he itched to try that.

"Claire, anything I can shoot here?"

"I have a surplus of tripolar walls, but not of biblical access points. Take a guess what you may shoot."

"I'll be careful!" With that, he willed energy in his black palm. With one swoop, he hurled it at the mirror to his left. On impact it broke into a shower of tiny crystals. Val scooped them up and found his hide so thick even the sharpest edges did not cut him.

Claire floated over his claws, peering down curiously. "You're using no spells?"

"Huh? That's not normal for Ancient Dragons?"

"Oh ... it's unusual. Then again, you are an unusually talented dragon."

"I guess so. What else can I do?" he said as he threw up the splinters. They tickled as they rained down on him.

"I've never been in a form such as yours, so I cannot answer. My apologies."

"It's okay."

After testing the density of his wings a bit, he curled into a ball and rolled over the floor. As he came to a slope his speed increased, but he didn't worry. There was no getting lost here with Claire as his guide.

Once he bounced against a wall, he uncurled and lay there laughing. It felt so natural to be like this, he didn't want to go back to the restrained child form. Never.

"How old is this form?"

"Between 900 and 1100 I estimate," Claire said.

This was another thing to give Val pause.

What if this was his actual age? What would have happened to reduce him to a child who could not remember?

He had to remind himself that a lot of secrets weren't as scary as they looked from the outside. Claire wasn't scary, he himself wasn't scary. There probably was a reason Filia kept a secret that could explain it.

Off course, whenever secrets were kept without a date of revelation decided on, it meant those the secret kept from were dangerous or in danger. The answer might involve that he was dangerous. No, there had to be some other explanation. Maybe she's needed to steal his petrified egg and she was ashamed of having broken the law, or maybe he'd been brainwashed all that time.

No matter what, he couldn't pretend anymore that he wasn't burning with curiosity.

"If I really am that old, why can I know so little?"

Claire took on a matching age and she laid a spectral hand over his claws. There was a pleasant sensation of holy magic. "You're happier this way. With your power back, you wouldn't need to go any further into the past."

"How do you know? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I ... I say this because I know my own secret and regret it. I would have been happier if I'd been just some nameless thought existing in this space, with no memory of what I have lost and all that I have failed. Everything I am is held together only by the thread of self imposed duty, yet I am often useless and with too much time to spend recalling what I cannot be anymore, yet the need to be exactly that. You are happy because you now have no nagging feeling of incomplete existence, and before you never wondered about what you might miss."

That was it, then. Her words all but confirmed he was missing something.

There was consolation too, however. It didn't sound like something he needed, at least not in the way she did. He was curious, but now he could take this older form he did feel complete. Maybe that was enough. Maybe he'd hate the secret.

It had to be worse for her, that she spoke so much about herself when asked this. He had seen her as a fun playmate, but if he was no real child it was the place to wonder what she was. It didn't sound like she was happy here. Maybe in some twisted way, Xelloss had brought him here for her to be happier.

Claire feigned sitting opposite of him, ethereal and without an apparent worry, waiting for him if he needed something else. Val decided to turn the table.

"How long have you been here anyway?" he asked her.

"1020 years."

"That must have been lonely."

"I don't understand loneliness," Claire said.

"Huh? But it sounded like you were."

"Loneliness is a psychological termination system that belongs to organic creatures with a social instinct. I am an astral creature's ghost, descendant of Siephied alone. Astral creatures do not posses any instinct that is designed to further procreation and eject the unwanted from the gene pool."

He didn't understand half of that. More importantly, this wasn't going like he expected. Good friends listen and support one another, and they don't make the other feel pain or ignore them, so Filia and Elena had told him. He was trying to be that, but with Claire being so ... so ... alien.

"So ... you don't have a social instinct? What does that mean? You're not my friend?" he asked anxiously.

"Yes, I am. I would dislike to see you hurt and I think I can trust you. But I don't need it like you need company, and it doesn't come naturally."

"That's sad."

"Off course not. It doesn't hurt me to lack it. I'm better off than you in that regard, at least. It only hurts that I lack what I should be."

"Oh ... but can you still be bored? That's an awful lot of time and Xelloss said you didn't get a lot of visits till he started coming."

"Time doesn't last long or short for me. For you it is cause you don't have a lot of memories. For me it is because I have many, but there are no diversions. My chronoception is not marred by subjectivity, nor do I have a brain that needs constant stimulation to stay healthy."

"Chronoception ..."

There was something like a sigh. "Talking to the beast priest about these things was easier. I don't understand how we went from talking about your power issues to my mental faculties."

Val smiled triumphantly, pointing. His long arm not taken into account, his claw poked through her face. "Oh, you can get annoyed!"

Claire humphed as she leaned away. "Were you starting to think of me as an underdeveloped construct or something?"

"Well, yeah. Almost. Just for a little bit, when you were all weird about friendship and loneliness. Hey, if all you do is talk back to me and be curious, you're missing out on life."

"I can't miss what I don't need."

"Do you never get curious at it? Maybe you'd like all those organic things if you tried."

"And then I might end up like the beast priest and his lord. It's not an appealing subject, given their current predicament."

"Predica ... I don't get it," he said. He bit his lip and noticed he had fangs. A trickle of blood ran down his chin. "Can we start at the beginning? If I want to get who you are and help you too, I need to know more. Or is it a secret?"

"I'm a free charge service, I don't need your help. Thank you for the offer, however."

He rocked on his crossed legs, back and forth. She tilted her head before mimicking the movement.

"That's not right," Val said. "You're a person and you say we're friends. Can't you just tell me stuff about you? How do you know Xelloss and what's that about being descendant of Siephied? You're not a god, are you?"

"No, not like this. Yet I may hope you are not a hater of gods, because once I was. Or I have part of it."

Val scratched his wings, something didn't feel quite right about the answer he was going to give. He said it anyway, "Mom says the gods don't pay attention to much but they're not the enemy either. So I guess I don't hate gods."

No, that felt like a lie. Testing, he added, "But you care, so you're okay." That at least was true. "So who were you anyway?"

She gave him the most distinct face she'd made yet. The kind of face his mother made when a particularly dense customer turned away for a moment, mixing disbelief and frustration.

"Val. Guess. Who died here?"

"Eh ... Aqualord Ragradia?" It was so obvious now, but somehow any knowledge of the god had been buried ... like it was pulled under the ground by the missing memories. For an instance, he knew Ragradia was a name important to his past, only for that knowing to be alien a moment later.

"Yes. A prior variant, the one that existed between me and Ragradia, she saved Xelloss's life despite knowing what he was. Just a little before he had done her a favor too, carrying her to safety when he did not have to, but Xelloss only counts from the favor paid to him forward, so it did not matter. You could say he's been trying to repay it by giving me a more sold form of existence after a battle left me broken, lest I fade away. I guess that is one way you've helped me too."

"How so?"

She smiled brilliantly. "By needing me. I should have worked to let everyone live as long and as happily as possible. Those were the final thoughts of Aqualord Ragradia and those I must embody."

"Oh. Neat, then you really aren't like the other gods!"

That was a little like how his mother lived, now he thought about it.

· · · · · · ·

Two days later, after spending most of his times play practicing his newfound power, he returned home at the side of an unusually silent Xelloss. The devil disappeared immediately, leaving Val to wonder why Gravos was in the passageway outside their quarters, preparing the saddle. It was too large to be unfolded inside their rooms, but out here Filia could put it on and just teleport into the open (she said it was possible with so much holiness around, even if she couldn't see). Filia had gone over with the family what to do in case of sudden departure.

"Eh ... we're just taking precautions in case we need to leave early," Gravos said when he spotted the curious Val.

"I noticed. They've made enough fusion magic vessels?" Val asked, as vain as he knew that hope to be.

Gravos shook his head. "I wouldn't know anything about divine or arcane say so. Just that lady Filia said we had to pack. If you ask me it's one of those times again. Y'know. When the villages get hostile."

Val nodded sadly.

Gravos was their saddle expert, so Val went inside to see whether he could help anyone else. To be honest, he was glad to be leaving Kataart, but also doubtful about the way they'd do so. Claire had said she was going to come out of the sub dimension eventually and she'd like to join him, but it would need a lot of tools. Soul jars, for example, and weak dimensional spaces and magical circles and a particular type of sorcery. If they were going to leave without any of those available, Claire would have to stay behind. Soul jars sounded like Filia's expertise, though. He considered telling her about Claire, surely she'd help out.

Filia was in the kitchen with Elena, carefully wrapping the tableware in cotton cloth.

"Hey mom, do you know about soul jars?" he asked. "Can you make one?"

"Val, not now. We're busy, okay?" she muttered withouteven looking up.

"But mom, it's important!"

Elena shook her head. "Val, this really isn't a good time. Your mother's in an, ehm, insulted mood."

"What did Xelloss do this time?" Val asked.

The spoon Filia had in her hands snapped as her fist clenched.

"Not Xelloss," she hissed. "Those idiots have crystal balls but they sure don't know how to use them properly! Amateurs! They haven't wielded them for a millennium! How can they think they can use them as surveillance with a feeble Vision spell? That takes practice! They shouldn't be interpreting every vague little wisp of vision in the most dramatic way possible!"

"They shouldn't be spying in the first place," Elena said with a sigh. She laid a hand on Filia's fist, who released the broken tableware.

"That too!"

When Filia was in rage mode, talking to her was difficult. Val leaned out the kitchen door and called, "Palu, do you know anything about crystal balls and mom being upset?"

"After the alley thing some dragons wanted to know for sure whether they were doing it and they saw them on the couch. They decided that meant yes."

Val rolled his eyes and laughed. "That's stupid."

"That they are. As if I'd let myself be seduced by Xelloss! As if he'd want to! But this is all just for precautions. Earthlord Rangort is in charge of this, and I'm sure he doesn't want anything to happen to us. Not if he wants a decent product in the end," Filia said. There was a quiver in her voice. Every time they left a place she'd grown to feel home at, she sounded like that.

He hopped onto the table, careful not to step on anything, and pulled Filia and Elena in a hug. He'd tell her about Claire tomorrow, when she felt better.

· · · · · · ·

After Val helped with packing, he went to bed for a deep sleep with hazy dreams. When he woke, there was only the vague memory of the lady in the bright feather cloak. He turned over in bed, that's when he saw it.

A small feather coiled through the air just outside his bed. Curiously he slipped out from under the sheets, but as he came closer, the feather drifted away. Knowing the game that was played, he followed it.

The feather dissolved at the door, but in the dark hallway, he saw another.

As per usual, he had a room alone, Filia in the room to his left. The vulpen and Gravos were in rooms to the right, all the way to at the end of the hall. None could reach the other rooms without passing Filia's, whose door was open so she heard everything. As every night, a thick holy cloud flowed into her room and passed out like a wind that went both ways.

The feather trail led him to the smaller rooms. All these rooms were meant to be closed with lock spells and heavy doors, which made it all the more worrisome that the door of the vulpen children was open. Inside, the beds were empty.

Once he might have screamed, but now a whole different attitude kicked in. There was no room for childish antics, screaming could draw attention of the enemy.

Val knocked on the nearest door, but Gravos didn't open. He repeated the same with the door of Jillas and Elena, to similar results. The doors were locked, at least, so they probably were safe. He hoped, at least.

When he ran down the hall to his mother's door, he pushed in. She stirred when he came nearest, but nothing more.

"Mom, wake up! Val and Palu are missing!" Val whispered as she shook her.

She only groaned and turned to her other side.

A shower of white feathers surrounded Val, one brushed past his ear.

"A sleep spell," a fleeting voice whispered. He had not so much heard it as remembered it.

The feather trail led him outside, down a canyon near the temple. Careful not to be seen by guards, he crept through the rock formations to reached it. It helped that all guards were not particularly alert, sitting around only waiting for their devil senses to go off. Idiots.

The trail led him far away, well out of earshot. There was a sound muffling spell as he passed into the canyon. Who ever was here probably wasn't on official orders. Though he couldn't place from where, the scenario reminded him of lynching.

He peeked over a ridge, right when the feathers vanished.

A group of elves and immature dragons had gathered here, none of the latter high level enough to transform into human shape. In their midst was a circle with six points, where Molly lay unconscious. Palu was discarded near a rock wall, moving no more than his little sister.

The elves were laughing and talking, some slouched against the rocks. One sat with her legs crossed on a tall rock, reading from a book and giving directions. The dragons were somewhat cramped. They would not be able to fight well in such an enclosed space. They were nervous too, which would make them imprecise. If they were doing this in secret, whatever it was, they furthermore would try to not be found out. And given their age, he should be able to handle them easily.

Where he'd learned to see such things remained forgotten, but he didn't care. He knew what he needed to. This boost to his confidence drove him out of his hiding spot. Jumping all the way down, he landed like a cat.

Some turned lazily, others jumped in their skin.

"Huh? You awake?" the nearest elf asked.

"You screwed up the sleep spell!" one of the dragons told a nearby elf.

"What did you do to Palu and Molly?" Val asked evenly.

"Oh, we were just testing what these things are made of. What with you being the spawn of blasphemy, who knows? There probably was a reason lord Azonge attacked her instinctively."

"Xelloss is not my father and they are nothing evil," Val said. There was a drawl to his voice, he knew people never listened in these situations. They thought they were stronger than him, which was oddly satisfying.

"What would you know?" one of the dragons said. "As if they'd tell you if you were such an abomination, a sin against nature."

Val clenched his fists, defiantly looking up. One half of him wanted to argue, to defend his mother's honor. A stronger half wanted them to cross the line, because wouldn't it be fun if he could show them just how much of a dove they were before the cat?

He owed that cat an apology.

The elf sauntered closer, leaning over Val.

"I bet you're really defective. You'd fall apart if not for devil magic," the elf sneered, poking him in the head. The tickle of a spell about to be unleashed set off his instincts.

Val didn't think. He just transformed, not into a dragon but into an adult human. He grabbed the elf's arm and closed his fist, growing it out into a claw. With all the strength of an Ancient Dragon concentrated on that small area, he didn't so much break the arm as turn it to bloody mush.

He stopped only for a cold moment to see everyone panic. Ha, they acted like they hadn't ever seen any blood. Probably had been raised too well. Too weak.

So had he, incidentally, but still he was like this. It was okay too. If before had felt right, this was even better. He wanted to suck up their fear, but couldn't.

Flicking the gore off his claw and burying his foot in the stomach of his victim, he brought him to the brink of death before losing interest. It was too easy, he wanted a better fight. There was no playing if the prey didn't move.

The others finally tore from their frozen state, some lunging at him, others fleeing. The elves attacked with pathetic blades, the dragons with their laserbreath. Val dodged them with ease. When he grew his wings and decimated a dragon's head with but one strike of his claws, they already lost what little focus they had. Amateurs indeed.

Fear and rage made poor battle companions, especially for these teens. Val shot by them, ripping wings and breaking legs till all collapsed. They hadn't even landed before he's tossed a few claws full of energy after them, leaving them burned and in pain.

"Magic without spells! He is a hybrid devil!" the elf with the book whispered from farther away, eyes pathetically wide. She's run off, but had not come far with the steep rocks. Stupid little wench. He shot a spell after her, bringing her down with two tries.

He forgot his rage briefly when he felt something soft under his feet. Molly still lay there, he'd stepped on her tail. Kneeling, he carefully scooped her up. She was still alright, simply under the effects of a sleep spell. Small singes on her fur indicated they'd tried a few less savory things, however.

In this size, she was so tiny and vulnerable. There'd been another time he had seen fox folk like this, a burning village. Most everyone was dead, save that one, and that one. He picked the one that had lost his eye, it'd make a nice theme since the other one also missed an eye ...

Who had he been?

"Val? Is that you?"

Palu's voice pulled Val back to the here and now. There was no burning village, but there were burning elves and dragons. If not for the muffling spell, their screams would be all over the mountain. There was also a young beige fox who had never looked at Val with such fearsome eyes.

"I don't know if it is me," he whispered. He knew this was the kind of situation where he had to say yes, and assure the scared one it was alright, but he honestly didn't know. The clash between not wanting his family to be so afraid and the bloodlust left him in a deadlock. It took Molly stirring for him to be pulled in one direction.

"Hey, don't be afraid." He hunched down before Palu and turned one of his arms back to human form. Carefully he helped him stand. Palu seemed alright, so he put Molly in his arms. She opened her eyes at last, giving him a confused look?

"Val?"

He grinned. "How do you like my new trick?"

"You look big," she said, followed by a yawn. "I don't feel okay."

"That's because bad elves and dragons cursed you, but you're safe now. I'm the family guardian. Let's go back and fire Xelloss!"

"Can we?" she asked.

Palu was still staring, pressed against the walls. When his arms closed further around Molly, Val thought it was because of him. But Palu stared beyond him, above his wings.

Wind pushed against Val's back and a heavy dragon voice thundered, "What in Siephied's holy name are you?"

Oops. If the sleep spell was wearing off, the sound spell would be missing too. The guards at the ruins above would have heard the cries now.

In other words, he wasn't done yet.

"Palu, go home," he said again. "Molly, don't worry. Mom will heal you."

Finally, Palu nodded. Holding Molly close, he raced towards the nearest slope.

Val turned his arm draconic again, but this time he was caught unaware. Before he knew it, a Zenaffa armor was forced over him by an elf, cutting him off from the astral plane. Energy lobbing was out of the question now, but he still had all his internal magic and strength.

With a sharp turn he made a grab for the elf, but this one wore a Zenaffa armor that allowed him to shoot out of range. Some sort of speed enhancing spell was at work too.

He tried tearing the armor, but it simply reformed itself like liquid metal. Who ever commanded it was good at what they did. Ranged combat not being an option, he needed a smaller space to fight. The dragon guards gathering above were preparing for laserbreath, which could affect targets regardless of the astral plane.

Val dodged into the narrow canyons of the mountain, forcing the dragons who could not transform to stay behind, but he was left with those who could. He stopped to face them, only to see them drop.

Xelloss stood there as sudden as lightning, and around him everyone was already dead. It had taken only a flick of his fingers.

"In a hurry, Val?"

"Were were you?" Val hissed. "They kidnapped Palu and Molly!"

"Out into the mountains, off course. Killing astral witnesses," he said simply, one eye open. "You see, I understand the need for secrecy, unlike you. What did I tell you, Val?"

Val looked down. "If mine spills, you have to kill people or they'll kill our family. But they—"

"Were a bunch of stupid teenagers that I could have easily undermined. You did something really overblown. Not that I have high expectations of dragons and their self control."

"Shut up and help out! There's more guards coming, can't you hear them?"

"Off course. But see, you have quite the astral resonance, now that you're doing whatever you're doing. I'm afraid I'll be quite busy in a minute with cleaning up devil witnesses. Seeing as I cannot warp you away with this armor on, we have quite a problem on our hands. Try not to die, will you?"

"If it was up to me, you'll be trying in vain!" called a heavy voice from above. A black dragon shot over, transformed in mid flight and landed between Xelloss and Val. Azonge.

Whatever composure he meant to radiate broke when he realized he was surrounded by the dead. His jaws fell open, and Val saw him through two minds of his own. The warrior saw a pathetic weakling and called forth more bloodlust, but the child saw a dragon who had lost his family to a monster. Azonge right now wasn't the pompous fool, but one who could break or get revenge.

When he looked to Val at last, he said a simple, pained, "You are ..."

He didn't finish, but his face carried all the hatred he could have put in whatever swearword was on his tongue. He became the vengeful warrior, and so Val became the warrior as well.

Xelloss didn't just snap his finger this time. "My my, an interesting opponent at last. Val, why don't you keep these nice dragons occupied? Let's see how you fare against a high ranking dragon. We'll be kinslayers together."