Claude had spent the last few days cursing the fact that he hadn't had the foresight to bring anyone with a Sheikah Slate with him. Instead, he had to rely on a messenger owl to arrange a meeting with Seiros.
Four days of confusion and speculation hadn't exactly been ideal. Bergliez's men were nervous, and the longer they didn't have an idea of what was going on, the worse it would get. Hopefully, when he got back, he would have answers for them.
At the prompting of Seiros's reply message, he took the fastest wyvern available and flew to where he and Seiros, at least this version, had first met.
He found her at the entrance to Zanado, staring pensively at the ruined city. He stood next to her and stared at it with her. "I imagine your home was beautiful back in its prime."
"It was," Seiros said. "No matter what upheaval was taking place in the rest of the world, we could always come back here knowing that however the world changed, Zanado would stay the same. It was an island of calm and stability in an ocean of chaos."
She closed her eyes and inclined her head mournfully. "But it's gone now. We can't return it to how it was. Not without the Goddess protecting it." She sighed and turned away from the ruins. "But even without our sanctuary, we will adapt. We will adapt because we must." She turned to him. "You said you had important news for me that you needed to discuss in person?"
"Five days ago, we attacked Waldebert the Blood-Letter's war camp," Claude told her. "And we were attacked by a manakete. But something was definitely wrong with him. And not just the kind of wrong that would be needed for a manakete to fight for an army of human xenocidal maniacs. I'm not even comfortable calling his alternate form a dragon, it was that twisted. It seemed like all he could do was scream in agony. And I don't think Crest Stones are supposed to look like this." He showed her the dead manakete's Crest Stone. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?"
"I wouldn't be able to tell you where they found a manakete," Seiros said. "I have been keeping careful track of the location of every Nabatean. None of them could have been caught by the Order of Iron without me knowing about it. But I can tell you what was wrong with him. He was degenerating."
Claude tilted his head.
"Degeneration is the only disease that affects manaketes in any significant way," Seiros explained. "It can have several causes. Overuse of power, agonizing and constant pain over a significant period of time, total loss of hope, or sometimes it just happens for reasons unknown. It tends to cause madness, sometimes loss of control over one's dragon form as well. It can take years," She bit her lip. "It's a horrible way to die. Mother tried to find a way to prevent it completely when she made us, but she couldn't."
Claude cringed. "Does this...happen to all dragons eventually?"
"If you're asking if it's incurable once it begins, the answer is no," Seiros answered. "As long as the affected manakete hasn't completely lost the will to live, we do have ways of reversing degeneration. Several rituals to re-balance the flow of magic within us. And our dragonsleep also can heal the effects of degeneration. But every method we have of treating it, save for appealing to a god for healing, which doesn't always work, is an involved and time-consuming process. And, of course, we have to notice that it is happening as early as possible, as the longer it goes on, the more difficult it is to treat. Many good manaketes have died over the course of history because no one able to help realized they were degenerating until it was too late. Almost always during tumultuous times."
That was...not ideal for any plans to properly integrate the Nabateans into human society. Not at all.
"I hope you can understand why we would want to keep this information under wraps," Seiros said. "It wouldn't end well for us if this became public knowledge. Degenerating manaketes usually take years to reach the point where they become an active danger to those around them. But more often than not, humans who find out about degeneration start to believe we're one bad day away from turning into rampaging monsters."
This was a big problem. But it was a problem that could be considered later. Right now there was another problem that took priority.
"I understand," Claude said. "I won't tell anyone outside of the Rising Sun Company. For the soldiers, I'll just say the Order of Iron captured a manakete and tortured him into insanity. That should be enough for them. But that still leaves the question of where that manakete came from."
"I'm afraid I can't help you," Seiros said. "He can't have been a Nabatean. So either a manakete from another tribe came to Fódlan and met an unfortunate fate, or..." her eyes widened as a horrible possibility occurred to her.
"Or a god is supporting Ohm," Claude realized.
"There have been several gods who rebelled against the One Above All. All of them have met a permanent end but one," Seiros said. "But I can't be certain that his involvement isn't a possibility. And if Majora is involved...then I don't know what we can do."
"Majora?" Claude asked.
"There is a being known as Null that existed before this world was born," Seiros said. "Null has a deep-set hatred for all of creation. It desires nothing less than the complete destruction of everything that exists. This world, the physical planet? It was created as a prison for Null, which is contained in the planet's core. Naturally, most beings wouldn't be willing to knowingly serve Null. But it does have one servant, a god named Majora, who wants only to cause suffering and death."
"But if Null succeeds, it will also destroy Majora," Claude ventured.
"Majora knows. But he doesn't care," Seiros said. "And while Null plans to destroy Majora if it succeeds in gaining the power to destroy all of existence, until then it won't allow Majora to meet a permanent end. Majora is too useful to it."
"What does Majora have that Null needs?" Claude asked.
"Null's hatred of existence renders it unable to create anything," Seiros said. "It had control over a being that allowed it to create copies of things that already exist, but that being was destroyed. Now it can't create anything at all. Majora, however, can create. Of course, he abuses that ability to create beings whose entire existence is suffering, both for themselves and the world around them..."
"Such as manaketes who are already beginning to degenerate when they're born," Claude realized.
"Hopefully this is only theoretical," Seiros said. "That unfortunate young man might have been a manakete from some other tribe who was unfortunate enough to run into the worst people he could have."
"Let's hope so," Claude said. He had hoped he would leave this meeting feeling better. Unfortunately, now he was even more anxious.
