Given that we're nearing the end of the first arc/"book 1" over on QQ and ao3 and thanks to some gentle encouragement, this is as good a time as any to post this here as well before yet more chapters pile up and thus crossposting becomes even more of a pain, kek.

Lansseax could not believe it.

Refused to in fact.

"Thy terms are more than agreeable." And yet, with every inch of her body aching. From the furthest wing to her forehead's cracked stone scales, the truth could not be denied. "Let us join hands and give an end to this pointless feud." Whereas as her whole body cried out in agony and she, one of the mightiest Dragons struggled even so much as to remain standing. The Golden idiot down below her, tiny by comparison, stood tall, seemingly unharmed, with the exception of a few scratches lining his black armor.

Mere scratches.

That's all her own, not inconsiderable, efforts alongside that of her brothers and the rest of their kin amounted to.

Scratches.

"Very well then." Fortissax's voice remains regal as her brother does a far better job of concealing his own aches and gives a nod of his long head towards that filthy…strong! foolish human.

Lansseax can't help but shudder and gasp.

"Sister?! Is aught well? Why do you—"

"Pay me no heed, brother. I'm merely far more tired than I thought."

"Understandable." the Golden idiot below can't help but add his own two runes with a nod. His hand still wrapped around that curved toothpick of steel the humans call a sword.

Cautious too!

Lansseax can't help it, another shudder wracks through her frame. For the human is smart enough to not let down his guard until the pact is sealed.

"Be that as it may," Godwyn continues. "shall we proceed my friend? The quicker we do so, the faster you and yours can join us and recuperate." At Godwyn's proclamation, the mortal mayflies all around them begin to murmur but he, ignores them with a smile. "For no ally of ours shall find our hospitality wanting."

"Very well then, m-my friend!"

Ah! This Godwyn is a far more fearsome foe than I feared! For him to somehow have learned of Fortissax's loner tendencies and be so quick to exploit them…

"Ah, but…I fear there is an issue?"

Godwyn blinks. "Pray tell, what might that be?"

By her side, Fortissax shrugs, and to the filthy, backward, stinky~

She shudders again.

Mortals who are not all that well versed in the body language of her own superior species, her brother's act might seem completely normal. And yet, she can read how, as the mortals would put it, flustered he is.

"Strong you might be, my f-friend, and yet our sizes—"

She can't help it.

A snort leaves her mouth.

"Sister?!"

"Hast thou forgotten you can shift thy form?"

"Ah."

Her brother, much beloved, was an idiot.

"But I haven't decided on its finer details yet…" his murmured whisper, and courtesy of their size loud enough for everyone gathered near Leyndell's breached walls to hear, makes her still.

And she knows not whether it is pride or anger that fills the bigger portion of her heart.

For on the one claw, her brother it would seem, decided to show the beginnings of intellect after a few dozen millennia. On the other…

I saw him first!

That is to say…she can't risk her precious brother's life, or the rest of her kin.

And thus, being the noble soul that she is, Lansseax will have to take this arduous, ignoble task upon herself and spy upon Godwyn. In order to protect her people of course.

To begin with, I shall need to find out where his tastes lie. No doubt in something filthy…stinky…ahh~

Lansseax barely managed to suppress another shudder as her brother, in a burst of power and the crackle of thunder compresses his form into something vaguely humanoid. A disturbing, an no doubt, temporary in-between that of glorious Dragonhood and primitive humanity, followed by him all but throwing himself towards Godwyn and grasping the Golden monster's hand.

And with a burst of Gold and Thunder, the magic of both their peoples' meeting and conjoining. The pact is sealed.

Their world is changed forever.

Chuckling and raising an arm, I wave at the cheering soldiers whose voices grow even louder in response to the act.

Giving a nod to the pair of guards by my tent, the pair standing prouder at my doing so and clutching their spears tighter, I approach the flap.

"L-Lord Godwyn…"

"At ease, friends," I say and enter my temporary home.

Which, despite the warcamp being within Leyndell, is still so much less than what my quarters actual in the palace are.

And yet, to half of my being, my present accommodations are not that unusual, if perhaps, somewhat…primitive amusingly enough.

At least my people do know what a latrine and bathing is.

Not that either set of memories minds the present state of affairs truth be told.

Thankful for the fact I'm alone for the moment, I let the smile slip from my face and let out a near silent hiss as I rub my forehead. The migraine that'd been threatening to split my skull ever since the Pact was sealed and the twin magics…awoke, summoned? The other set of memories plaguing me still.

At the end of the day though, whatever it is the magics is irrelevant.

Sitting upon a stool and letting the older part of my being guide my hands and will, I conjure the magics of Gold I'm so well known for and help mend my body and spirit. Driving away the ache.

Part of me relishing in the experience, for it is so rare for me to be inconvenienced even to such a meager extent.

The boons of being the offspring of a Goddess and the First of Chads. Godfrey! I suppose…

And yet, the other part of my being, now awakened once more, or perhaps recently merged, irrelevant. The new memories, for all the wonder and… the deviancy contained within show that for all that my might can not be denied.

I am not invincible. Far from it.

Feeling a rare scowl form upon my face and my gauntlets creaking in warning as I tighten my fists, I forcibly exhale and force myself to calm, lest I ruin the masterwork armor Hewg worked so hard on.

Most people, upon finding themselves transmigrated to another reality would have no doubt panicked. And yet, mayhaps courtesy of this body of Adamant I found myself in, one that I'd always inhabited and yet not, or my own already alien mentality prior to finding myself here…

I cared not about such trivial matters.

For half of me this was merely something surprising but not that difficult to adapt to.

The other half, rejoiced at this new lease of life.

A life which all of me refused to let go to waste, or allow the many woes I now knew off to befall my beloved people, both old and new at that.

"As father would put it, there are quite a few 'skulls in need a crackin'." I can't help but chuckle to myself at that, memories of simpler times filtering through my mind's eye, when Godfrey would lift me to his knee and regale me with tales of war and conquest, my Mother, when duty permitted, joining us as well.

And speaking of my mother…

The excited shouts and chants around my tent have ceased and as they've done, a…presence has been steadily growing.

One that half of me is very familiar with.

As the flap serving as my tent's door parts, I jump to my feet as a familiar blonde figure enters.

"Mother!"

"Hello, Godwyn," she says and before I can do much, this vision of beauty sashays towards my unusually indecisive form and wraps her arms around my head, gently tugging and I hasten to follow her guidance until my head is buried in the crook of her neck and the sweet floral scent invading my nostrils is enough to make me shudder as forbidden thoughts, now emboldened by new memories and desires, once again rush through my mind, part of the reason I so rarely visited the Capital now.

"Oh my dear boy," and mother's voice so close isn't helping matters either. At least I'm thankful for the fact I've yet to divest myself of my armor, even if it feels…constrictive all of a sudden. "You've been absent so long. Why, tis almost enough to make an old woman start to think you no longer love your mother."

"I could never hate you mother! And you are not old!" the affronted words leave my lips before I can think better as I draw back to meet my mother's eyes with a frown.

Only to realize too late that this is what Queen Marika wanted as she lets out a giggle of all things. Something no doubt few of her subjects have ever heard and her eyes crease with fondness as she pats my cheek. "Such a dutiful little son I have."

"I am not little, mother." I can't help but whine. Unbecoming of me perhaps, but mother's old joke had stopped being funny a long time ago.

Although, with hindsight, when compared to my till a few hours prior, unbeknownst Omen brothers…

I could see where the 'little' came from.

After all, for all that I inherited my Father's statute, my two brothers, I suspect might still be a bit taller than me.

"Whatever thou'st say, my dear~" Mother replies and I merely sigh, knowing better than to reply and give her more…what's the word, ah right, ammunition.

Giveth my mother and inch and she would take the malm.

"I'm so proud of you."

I can't help but startle at that.

"Mother?"

"To have fostered peace with the mongrel Dragons and put an end to this war…"

"You flatter me mother but it was the work of many. I merely provided the muscle and the exact wordings of the treaty I left to the scribes as you no doubt are well aware."

"And without your strength my dear, those same self scribes would be now running in fear while I took to the field instead of at present squeaking like rats between themselves and the Dragons own slaves as to the minutia."

I can't help but wince at that.

"Mother…"

For all her good points and beauty, Mother's nature…well. The new memories helped clarify a lot of things as well as place mountains of work upon my already overflowing plate.

The Hornsent would have to go, for one.

And I would have to find a way to undo the cursed they placed upon Mother.

The curse which…

"No need to lie~ You know why you wish to free her from the curse. No need for you own progeny to be born tainted so~"

Be silent!

Had its hooks within me too.

Like it did to all of my siblings born of mother, born of Marika.

Which explained why Radagon's own offspring alone, remained free of any taint.

Unlike Messmer, or my two brothers, the affliction was not visible in my case, and yet…

The taint was very much there.

As had been its seductive whispers, the Goddess honeyed words begging me to just…give in.

"Ah, forgive me, honey, I will not ruin your moment of triumph," mother says, patting my cheek and making me blush, and once again be thankful for my armor, my..urges she needs not know about. "And much as I would love to stay with you throughout the night. Duty calls I fear."

"I understand mother."

"Mmh, be sure to visit sometime soon, yes? It gets lonely—"

"Mother?" I can't help but frown and grow weary at mother's sudden tenseness and the growing sense of Gold and Order, my own muscles preparing to act at a moment's notice as she stares at a spot behind me, where, with a blinking glance of my own I find nothing but the tent's wall.

Although, now that I do focus my superhuman senses some, there is something peculiar there on the other side, although it is rapidly fading and, at any rate, I can sense no hostile intent from the fading threads of magic.

"It is nothing dear," Mother says, letting go of her power and I tilt my head in confusion as her smile turns positively…no, my other memories must be mistaken. For all of mother's faults. She is a kind and chaste woman at heart.

…and the impressive number of siblings and half-siblings I have, or the fact I only know most of them, doesn't matter!

"Rest well, and as I said, be sure to visit when time permits, yes?" she asks with one last pat on my cheek and steps back.

"It will be as you say, Mother," I say with a nod.

As Marika departs my mind once again can't help but go back to the troubles a brewing and which I will have to put out.

For I refuse to both die, knowing the consequences, and more importantly the grief it will fill Mother with.

"And you can't have that, can you now? After all you want to fill her with something else~"

Silence!

I growl, for a moment my voice not unlike that of my Father, the few times I'd seen him let go of his royal bearing.

"My lord?"

Smiling at the tense guard peeking in through the flap, I shake my head. "It is nothing, my friend, merely a bad memory."

"Ah. Apologies my lord."

Waving the guard away, a fact remains.

For all my, not inconsiderable, strength. I am not invincible.

And even the immortality running through my veins can be countered under the right circumstances.

"Not if you let me help~"

"I need to grow stronger."

And not in the manner one of my foolish descendants in a future I would not let come to pass had done so.

My Numen blood, courtesy of Mother, allowed me, all of us really, to meld with others. And yet that wasn't the path to power.

Not when there were other alternatives at hand.

"I need to find myself a maiden."

For a moment, feeling that oppressive strength weighing down on her, greater even the Golden idiots, Lansseax had feared this was to be her end.

And yet, the blow had never come, the God allowing Lansseax to hightail it like a scurrying rat as she undid her weaving.

Still, even as she ran as fast as her temporary humanoid form, so akin to her brothers, allowed she can't help but find it was worth it.

Despite the danger.

For now she knows, or at least has an inkling as to where the primitive's tastes lie, the scent of pheromones leaving the golden hunk's body unmistakable as he stood in the presence of his parent.

Weird. Filthy. But then again what did she expect out of a…primitive~

Lansseax barely managed to notice the wall in front of her and sway to the side.

B-but, be that as it may, further observation is needed so as to better mold my form to conform to his tastes…

This time, panting, the humanoid dragon, doesn't manage to avoid a collision.

"Did you hear something?"

"Yes? It seemed to come from over—"

And promptly hightails it before the guards can arrive.