After Vittoria’s departure, Arielle stared at the serpent, which remained in place, likely because it had no choice. Its eyes gleamed with menace, and it still made hissing sounds, but they were muffled thanks to Vittoria’s gag. Arielle lifted herself in the air so she could get closer, staring at the creature's eyes.
“I won’t hurt you,” she said. “At least, I’ll try very hard not to.”
The serpent hissed at her regardless, and she didn’t blame it. It likely couldn’t understand her and couldn't comprehend that she meant well. She would just have to prove it.
The problem was that she wasn’t even sure where to start.
At this vantage point, she could observe that there were very thin lines traced over the serpent's body, lines that matched the ones in the volcano.
The serpent's skin was leathery and scaly, patterns of white dotted on a ribbed matte black surface. Inside, a chaos of orbs surrounded its organs, but they did not move through its skin.
Ari could connect to them easily and could probably break the linkages holding the spell together, but that presented the same dilemma she had faced when healing Elric.
Would it make it better or worse?
The backlash might kill the creature. Even if she stopped that, there was no way of knowing what happened to the essences once the links were broken. Would they ooze out of the body or remain trapped within? What would be the effect of the latter scenario?
First, Arielle needed to figure out what caused the problem and its mechanism of action.
If the dragon’s agitation had led to this, there should be something in the atmosphere that was affecting everything around it.
She stared at the assortment of orbs trailing in the air. Lots of Calor, so much that they overshadowed every other essence by severalfold. They were concentrated on the serpent, but some swam around her as well, clinging to her skin.
She wondered if the dragon’s aggravation could affect humans too.
She also wondered what caused a dragon to be agitated.
"Vittoria," she turned to the bird, who blinked at her slowly from its perched position on a branch, "What causes a dragon to get agitated, and can it pass on this ailment to humans?"
"Yes," Vittoria said. "Which is another reason why we can't stay here for very long. We must eliminate the dragon and as many of its infected as possible, then leave. And as for what agitates dragons, it could be a variety of things. It depends on the dragon, its clan, its species...we'll probably never know unless we actually speak to it."
"You can talk to dragons?"
"Obviously."
"I see." While Arielle was talking, she noticed something. One of the Calor orbs around the serpent's body was slightly brighter than the rest. It almost glowed, hyperactive, jolting in agitation.
It looked charged, even though technically it should not be.
Interesting.
Was it a spell? She'd never seen a spell made of a single orb before. Was it a new isotope? Or a different essence altogether?
She focused on it, in particular, and saw it had the typical number of outermost mini-orbs for a Calor essence. However, the pattern of mini-orbs on each ring was also interesting, increasing exponentially the farther away it got from the center.
Perhaps because of this, the external mini-orbs were hyperactive, practically jumping out of their ring.
Was this possibly the source of the agitation?
If so, could she fix it and calm it down by triggering a bond with another essence?
She used two of her activated Massa, shifting it closer to the Calor. The Calor wasn't supposed to be charged, so she wasn't sure it would react.
But it did.
Explosively.
When Massa got in proximity, the orb froze temporarily and pulsed with energy.
Then, a single external mini-orb jumped out of its orbit,
It didn't form a bond with the Massa. It simply radiated alone in the air, vibrating aggressively.
Ari gaped.
She stared at it in disbelief, because she’d never seen anything like that before.
She didn't know mini-orbs could exist by themselves out of their rings and bonding complexes. She also didn't know they gave off a real physical glow, one that she could see without her orb sight, though it was only a tiny dot that required enhanced [Sensate] to visualize. It was pale yellow, almost green, but blended in with the sunlight, which was why she had not noticed it before.
It looked very similar to the veins on the serpent's skin.
“Huh.”
So perhaps this free mini-orb was the thing causing the agitation, or at least it was a symptom of it. As it arced through the air, it left remnants of heat behind, tracing lines that shimmered.
“Arielle,” Vittoria spoke through the bird. “Are you making progress?”
“Maybe,” she responded, examining the way the mini orbs moved. A zig-zag pattern, touching the other external orbs before bouncing off as though mocking them with its freedom. Arielle tried to hold it, but it was too small a morsel for her to exert the usual control. It was like trying to pick up a tiny, slippery bead with two swollen fingers. Virtually impossible.
So she simply observed it some more as it left streaks, tiny trails of fire that likely wouldn't be significant enough to cause a major burn.
At least by itself.
Even when she reached out to touch it, there was almost no perceptible increase in heat. In fact, it was hard to tell what it was doing because the only damage she could see was that the Calor orb, now missing a mini-orb, was even more agitated. It pulsed and trembled, looking on the verge of an explosion, attracting more of the uncharged essences close to it.
How was it charged in the first place?
Could it pass it on to the other orbs?
Arielle mentally collated everything she had just learned. The dragon was emitting something that caused a specific Calor to be more active than the others, becoming charged. When it came in contact with other charged orbs, rather than a bond, it simply lost one of its mini-orbs and then became even more active, so much that...
That what? So far, she'd seen that it was harmless, at least outside the body.
It had done something to the serpent, though, because Arielle was pretty sure that normal snakes of that species did not breathe fire.
The Calor had imbued it with magical properties, forming bonds within its body.
But how did it do that? What determined the spell form?
And was that possibly how soul magic worked, except that instead of the body, it was in its soul?
That was when Arielle realized that she had yet to ask Vittoria what she actually came here for.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She’d gotten distracted by the problem, but now that she had isolated the source, she was one step closer to fixing it.
The serpent rattled the tip of its tail, and she focused on the network of essences strewn throughout its body. Mirroring the environment, it was a lot of Calor, with a few Vacu, no Luxa, and a smidge of Massa. A lot of triple and double bonds to compensate for the lack of overall balance in the spell, which would of course make the bonds harder to break.
The bonds also glowed, and circling them were the free mini-orbs, which seemed to revel in the freedom, leaving their trails of heat everywhere.
Perhaps that was why the creature could breathe fire, because of the little flames left behind by the free mini-orbs, joined together and enhanced by whatever the spell torturing the serpent was. It might be the cause of the glowing red eyes too, even though she couldn't spot the mechanism yet.
There were also a few manalings clumped together in parts of the serpent's body, so maybe that was also part of the problem.
However, she still didn't know how to fix it.
The manaling would be the easiest to solve, but she didn't know what to do about the free mini-orbs, as she could not control them. Could she force them back into their bonds?
Her best guess was that she needed to put the mini-orb back in its original essence to prevent further agitation.
Let’s try it.
First, she started to heal the manalings with Elric's spell, but the snake hissed and wriggled even more, so she stopped. Then she attempted to shift one of the agitated Calors located near the creature's eyes using it to capture the mini-orb back into its orbit, but just attempting to move it caused the snake to hiss and sniff in pain.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I am trying to help you, but I must disclose fully that I don’t know anything about healing. And I don’t know any healers either, at least none that I can ask about this.” She thought vaguely about Wulfric and murmured, “I do know one who may or may not seek to train in that field, but we are not on speaking terms. I specifically requested he does not bother me, so asking him to help me would be unfair. Wouldn’t it?”
Obviously it didn't respond. It was only a snake. But talking to it made her feel better about inadvertently causing it pain.
She might have to cause more pain to heal it. After all, she might need to experiment and see if she could gain insight from just moving the orbs around.
However, before she did that, she wanted to be sure she was on the right general trajectory. So she experimented outside of its body, using different essences to chase the free mini-orb, hoping to attract it.
None of them worked.
Neither the original Calor orb nor the other essences wanted the free mini-orb.
And the longer it remained free, the more erratic it behaved.
Arielle scratched the tip of her nose. There had to be some way to contain it and prevent it from causing more harm. There also had to be some way to get the essences out of its body.
The panacea Elric had drunk had essentially healed him by breaking bonds and stilling all the demonic orbs. The next time she had seen him, they were completely gone.
How?
She was distracted when Vittoria spoke in her head. “Arielle. I ran into your friends, Lyra and Maus, and they want to know your opinion on taking the surprise test."
“I have no opinion yet.”
"Good. That's what I told them." There was another long pause before Vittoria said, “You turned down the Iverson ball?”
“Yes,” she responded automatically.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to go.”
“Really? Not even with that handsome friend of yours?”
“If you’re talking about Wulfric, he’s not my friend.”
“He's not?”
“No.”
"Oh.” Vittoria was silent. “Well then this is awkward. I thought you two were familiar. He’d certainly acted like it.”
"I think it was the other way around. You might have told him something that made him assume we had more familiarity than we did."
"Perhaps. My mistake."
"It's okay." Arielle hesitated, then asked out of curiosity, “What did you two talk about when you were there?” Now that she thought about it, if Wulfric's persistence had been triggered by the conversation with Vittoria, then the blame for his actions did not land entirely on him. Sure, he was still overbearing, but that might have been thanks to the accidental closeness Vittoria had fostered.
“Nothing special," she said. "He spoke mostly about his family and how much his father liked you, and the pressure he was under to like you too. He poked fun at you a little, and I poked back. He seemed amused by that. I could tell most of his statements were humor used to mask insecurity. I was curious about one of his father's policies, so I asked about it, and he admitted that he did not agree with certain choices his father was making. Spoke about his complicated relationship with his mother. I know what that's like, so I gave him some advice. That was about it. The conversation lasted five minutes, but he opened up fairly easily, which is why I thought the two of you were friends."
“I see," she said. "He'd been pestering me to continue our conversation. I thought that might be the reason why."
"Probably."
“I may have been quite harsh with him."
“I’m not surprised.”
Arielle didn't have anything else to say to that, so she changed the subject, "I wanted to talk to you about soul magic and a potential connection with blood magic."
"Okay. Is this about that book you took from Yseult's home?"
"Yes. It's sealed with blood magic. I thought perhaps I could bypass it with a soul magical spell, like what the demons did to the sect's treasure chamber."
"Hmmm. I can teach you a few things, but soul magic isn't exactly easy to learn, especially that of the demons. They are masters of the soul, unparalleled in the art of necromancy."
"How did you learn it then?"
"From my father."
"Was he human?”
"Something like that. He always told me that souls and not bodies were the true reflection of a person, and being able to see them would reveal everything you need to know. He also taught me some soul sight. I'm not very good at it, mind you, and my command of the fundamental soul elements is murky. But I can teach you what I know. I'm about to leave so–"
"Wait," Arielle said. "Since you can see souls, can you do me a favor before you leave? I probably should have asked for this first."
"What is it?"
“I felt something in the North Base cave. Like a sense of wrongness. I think something might be trapped there."
"Like what?"
"Professor Valeria and I were experimenting with abyssal spells. I'm concerned that I might have done something. Maybe accidentally summoned some abyssal creature."
“I thought abyssal spells were lost.”
“They were.”
The ensuing silence punctuated Vittoria’s surprise, and the next time she spoke, her voice was laced with amusement.
“Wow. Can’t wait to see what Gio thinks once he hears of it. Good for you.”
“Not good, if we brought forth a monster.”
"Or possibly opened a pathway for a demon," Vittoria murmured. "I'll go check it out right now. Just waiting for a chance to slip away."
"From who?"
"Your roommate and friend."
They were still having a conversation? Arielle didn't like that.
"Don't talk to them. You might say something wrong." If Arielle lost her friends because of Vittoria, she would never forgive her.
"Don't worry. I learned my lesson. I'm staying silent mostly. They don't seem to mind."
Good. They were probably used to Arielle's quiet anyway.
"Have you made any progress in your experimentation?" Vittoria asked.
“Yes. I think I know what's causing it, but I'm not yet sure how to fix it."
“We’re not going to have much time. With every second we waste, the dragon's agitation grows, and more creatures are infected.”
“Yes, but I want to keep trying.”
“Arielle, I appreciate your intentions here, but sometimes you just need to let it be–”
A distant rumble echoed in Arielle's ears, the sound of the earth shaking.
The bird was instantly on alert, spreading its wings in the air.
"Arielle..."
"It’s okay,” she said. “I can handle it.”
She didn't know what it was yet, but she was pretty sure that she could subdue whatever monstrous creature came her way, and she needed Vittoria investigating the cave more than she needed her help.
She heard rumbling getting closer, sounding very much like heavy feet hitting the ground, causing rocks to jump. She readied herself for what might come, and it was....
A dragon.
A smaller one, with a fiery red body, its eyes sealed shut, its small hands with short nails curled together, mouth open in a silent shout.
"A baby dragon?" Ari murmured.
"Hell," Vittoria swore. "The volcano dragon is a mother. That's so much worse."
The dragon sniffed, twisting its head side to side, as though searching for Arielle.
"I think it's looking for me," Arielle murmured.
"It's probably hungry. The good news is that they can't really see or hear well at this age, and operate mostly by scent." She sighed. "The bad news is that a baby this young would never be away from its mother under normal circumstances. And a dragon who just gave birth would not leave its cave."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that there's something very strange happening here," she said. "And it's not a good thing. We have to learn what it is before it’s too late."
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