The vibrating dirt underfoot grew still as I stopped drawing from my sonilphon. Pulsating waves flowing freely from my palms ceased, and I “watched” them fade into the depths of the earth. My latest experiment to use [Destructive Wave] in a less destructive wave was interesting, if seemingly useless. Per the [Skill], I could send and control waves of my magic outside of the bounds of my body, but all that it’d served to do thus far was to extend my [Tremorsense] while making it much harder to interpret what the [Skill] was trying to tell me.

I’d tried to send waves of magic through the ground, then the air, and other than making a strange sound, the sonic waves didn’t seem to do anything. Frustrated, I stood and merely hummed. The constant sonic waves seemed to sing back at me, mocking my inability to find anything interesting to do with them beyond what my [Skills] directly stated they could do. Without anything else occurring to me, I trickled a bit of my magic into my throat, allowing the humming to subtly shift. It didn’t sound any louder, but I could feel the waves of the sound amplify, heighten, and grow. So far as I could tell, though, nothing changed beyond this general quality of the sound.

Continuing my humming, I continued to adjust the magnitude and power of the sound. It deepened, though again, without the obvious, audible sound changing. Even so, I felt the deep thrum of power that none of the keelish nearby could sense. My heart in my chest rebelled against my hum, and I cloaked it in additional magic as I strengthened the intensity of my magic. With a quilt of gentle waves surrounding my heart, then the rest of my organs from my head to tail, I pushed the hum to a new peak. I was unaffected by my “song”, but I could feel that I was on the verge of discovering something. With a final adjustment to the way my magic coated the inside of my snout, drawing somewhat on the feeling I got when I used [Innervating Address] and [Disastrous Discourse], I felt the quality of my hum shift. Still, it sounded like a normal, if somewhat forceful hum, but there was something different about it. There was no new [Skill] that appeared, but I knew that something in what I was doing had changed. As soon as I felt the change, I heard a series of thumps behind me.

Turning to investigate, I saw three of the keelish Alqat writhing on the ground while Brutus, stood nearby, struggled to balance. I immediately ceased my humming and the felled keelish stopped their thrashing. Brutus swayed on his feet, and I called for Vefir. He was quick to approach and as soon as he saw my prone bodyguards, he settled into a hunched position to tend to them.

“What happened? Their hearts are struggling to pump blood to their heads!”

“I was merely humming.” I replied as I helped Brutus down into a more comfortable crouch of his own. “Just using my magic, much like I would have to energize those around us.”

Vefir looked at me, face somewhat confused. “You were trying to energize them? How did that go so wrongly? Are they merely too weak?”

“I was experimenting.”

Vefir quietly muttered the Fifth of the Phrases of Words of Power to himself as he forced a nearly radiant power into the thrashing guards’ bodies. They finally fully stilled and collected themselves, though they were still obviously disoriented and uncomfortable. As Vefir strode over to Brutus and laid his hands on the much larger khatif, he locked eyes with me.

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“Alpha. You continue to underestimate the strength of your magic and overestimate the strength of your subordinates. I do ask that you consider the health of those who surround you when you experiment.”

I flared my frills in agreement, the ease with which I’d apparently nearly slain my companions settling over me.

“You’ve grown more impressive in your abilities.” I changed the subject, impressed with Vefir’s ability to do as much as he had so quickly.

“I’ve needed to, and communing with Nievtala has granted me greater strength as well.” As he said as much, Vefir looked to the heavens while thumping a clasped fist to his chest, a sort of divine salute. I looked at him, somewhat confused, and he replied, just as confused. “Shraal said it’s a way to show devotion to the Divine Conqueror.”

I internally turned to Nievtala to ask, but before I could, she answered me.

Shraal has provided various forms of worship to the devoted. They have decided to salute me as they would a commander. Fitting, though I do not know where the idea of a salute came from. The Divine Conqueror has long been one of my titles.

I couldn’t say that I was too surprised that the goddess had titles concerning her divinity, but a part of me wondered if my people could ever find peace with a goddess titled “the Divine Conqueror”. Would she even allow it?

More than that, though, could I? Could I forget the feelings of helplessness and trust in the benevolence of those who would become our neighbors? Could I trust that the Veratocracy wouldn’t seek us out as some monstrosity to be exterminated?

Could I leave behind my own lust for strength?

Long ago, I’d decided not to lie to myself any longer, to embrace my life as a keelish. Did that mean I’d always seek out war, or could I ever be satisfied with what I had? If I sought out peace, could we ever end up with a lasting one?

I couldn’t say. Perhaps that large portion of me that loved to indulge in [Combatant’s Bloodlust] and the joy of proving myself superior to another would lead me to constant conquest, until the continent laid at my feet. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to rest before I carved a throne room from the corpse of an ufudoluk and a crown from the bones of High Speakers. For now, though, I needed to focus on establishing a land where my people could survive and thrive and be left in peace by those who would slaughter us wholesale.

Vafir still looked at me, curious and confused at Shraal saying something without my approval. I flicked my tail in dismissal.

“He asked Nievtala a question I never did, though he got the same answer I would have.”

Vefir bowed his head before firmly patting Brutus’s arm several times. The huge khatif rolled his neck and worked his jaw before flaring his frills. Vefir took that as acknowledgement of his relative health and trotted off. As he did so, Sybil stepped closer.

“What you have done is quite interesting. I believe that this has the possibility of working with your other, more painful ability that you have been experimenting with. Are you willing to work with me on this, for I have several ideas.”

A wide grin crossed my face, and I happily agreed to experiment with Sybil.