The sounds of rushing footsteps caught up to me before I managed to do more than get to my knees. Instead of continuing to struggle, I looked only to see a flabbergasted Lia, staring at me in utter confusion.

“Mother?!” she asked, her eyes flickering around the room as if she was looking for something, “Is this some joke?”

“No,” I replied, finally managing to get to my feet due to the tight clothes hindering me. I could barely move my arms and legs until I pushed a little too hard and a suspicious ripping sound set me reasonably free, something I immediately used to straighten myself. Now that I was standing tall, I realised why my clothes had been so tight. Either Lia had shrunk in the wash or I had, somehow, gained some ten centimetres in height. Stretching my arm out, to see just what had happened, I could see little difference, it was still my arm, still slender with pale, blue skin but at the same time, it wasn’t. The arm felt too long, the joints out of sync with the rest of me, even if the proportions were mostly unchanged.

“I told you about the Divides, didn’t I? And that I was planning to cross the first,” I asked, in lieu of an explanation and Lia’s eyes visibly widened.

“They come with growth spurts?” she asked, amusement quickly replacing the confusion on her face.

“Apparently, you can’t be a Dragon and wear size extra-extra-small, or something like that. I don’t quite understand why it happened, only that it happened to me but I doubt it’ll happen to you. It might, but I don’t think so, Vampires aren’t supposed to be giant-sized, are they?” I grinned, now finding quite a bit of amusement in the situation myself.

Getting larger, taller, was an unexpected result of crossing the first Divide but it wasn’t really an unpleasant one. There had always been a part of me that had been annoyed at my diminutive size, even if another, contradictory part had been gleeful, had gloried being petite but being able to kick people twice my size in the face. Now, my size was just on the smaller side of average giving me a few advantages but also disadvantages.

“So, how does this work anyway? You explained a little, but I still have no idea what to expect when it’s time for me to cross the divide,” Lia pushed and I stepped forward with purpose, only for the sound of ripping fabric to tear through my intent of explaining to her what I knew. My movement had been enough to destroy my clothes to the point that fabric was falling, leaving me a little exposed.

“Give me a moment, and maybe some of your clothes, if you don’t mind,” I asked, desperately trying to keep any mortification from showing on my face. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t seen each other naked, Lia was usually washing up while I conjured water for her and generally living in tight quarters wasn’t conducive to modesty but nonetheless, I felt mortified at having literally burst through my clothes.

“Of course, Mother,” she nodded, walking back into the room she had set her stuff in, quickly coming back and handing me a shirt and some soft pants. Nothing great, and certainly no underwear, but it was good enough. In the meantime, I stripped off, a part of me remaining amused that being naked was less embarrassing than having the ripped remains of my previous clothes hanging off me, but I chalked it up to the loss of control. Being naked was a choice, having ripped through my clothes was not.

Or something like that.

Either way, once I had fresh clothes, we walked back into the other room and I realised that crossing the divide had taken far longer than I had anticipated, leaving us with no time to get anything else done during the night. Like, look for new clothes.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Instead, I settled in and tried my best to explain to the others what the first Divide entailed, contrasting my own experience now with what I knew about the experience on Mundus, what I had researched there and my own conclusions. I had told them most of the things I knew before, but now, I tried to form my knowledge into a concise and accurate lesson as I could. They all would soon face their own Divide and I wanted them to find the best way to cross theirs. Mine had given me immense benefits, I wanted my companions to have similar gains, even if I doubted the possibility.

Dragon-Touched had been the primary reason for my success, of that I had no doubt. Hell, some of the notifications implied that there was a great deal more to the trait and to my connection to Dragons in general and the Nidhögg in particular than I knew. The notification telling me that I had accepted my Elder Brother’s Touch, it directly referenced the Nidhögg calling me little sister and wasn’t that a whole new can of worms?

Little Sister of a being literally able to destroy the world? Maybe I just needed to grow up some more and I could destroy the world myself.

The thought flickered through my mind, only to cause my brain to grind to an almost painful stop, my racing thoughts stopping so fast that they gave me whiplash. Growing up, just like the Dragon-Touched Trait said I was, growing up, maybe even in a literal fashion, as in, growing taller? Just like I had upon crossing the first Divide?

I had no idea what to make of that idea, was I turning into a dragon? Or had I simply accepted something that had been within me all along?

The memory of a large, snow-covered mountain, hidden in the clouds welled up from deep within my mind. I remembered slowly flying around that mountain, I remembered resting on its slopes, I even remembered tearing at a cursed injury within that mountain, the mountain that had always represented my Sigmir. And the cursed injury I had burned away from her very soul, using nothing but a breath of frozen, blue fire.

Was I turning into a dragon? Or had I been one all along?

But if that was true, why was it my class that was changing, not my race? I just didn’t know, nor had I any idea how to find out, without simply continuing on my path. If that even was my path or maybe the question was, did I want it to be my path? Did I want to become a dragon?

Reaching for the trace of draconic power within me had been a conscious choice when trying to cross the first divide. I could have tried reaching for other sources of power, maybe Hecate’s blessing could have worked, or maybe the diverse elemental affinities and magics I had worked so hard to learn. Even the primal power of the moon would have been an option, it had been what I had used on Mundus.

Each option would have led me to a different outcome, maybe a better one, maybe a worse one, if that was even applicable in this case. Was it better to have your power wax and wane with the Lunar Cycle, until one finally fell into the Madness of the Dark Moon, or was it better to take on Draconic Power, allowing your magic to become more forceful? Though even that had been a choice, I could have tried channelling the Draconic Power completely into my body, which would have yielded a different result yet again.

Back when Road to Purgatory had been thought of as a game, there had been people searching for the perfect build. But there never was a consensus, what was the strongest? Was it to be unrivalled in a small area of expertise or was it to be capable in every way but not exceptional in any? Jack of all trades or Master of one?

What would I want to be? I had actively and with great effort expanded the amount of Trades I was a Jack in, but had that set my mastery of others back? How strong would my Ice Magic be, if I had focused on it, to the exclusion of everything else?

Every decision had consequences, every step in one direction was one I couldn’t take in another, unless I wanted to start walking in circles, never getting anywhere.

There were no right answers, only actions and their consequences. Right or Wrong was determined by those consequences and your own perception of them.

A small part of me started to wonder, when did Magic and my progression on the Arcane Path become so similar to people? Without any definitive answers, without any straightforward and obvious solutions to pursue?

By the time my lesson with my companions was over, exhaustion had me fully in its grasp, pushing me to do nothing but go to sleep. Hopefully, sleep would grant me some clarity, remove some of the questions dragged into my consciousness by the notifications and maybe even give me an idea of the best way forward.